Tadashi's Heroes
by KaliAnn
Summary: Instead of Tadashi dying in the fire, Hiro does. In grief, Tadashi struggles to move on, but discovers someone is using Hiro's technology to endangered the city. In honor of his brother, he and his friends, form a team to bring the criminal to justice before he ruins Hiro's legacy. However, everything is not as it seems as a surprise awaits for the young college students and robot.
1. Little Brothers

It was night in the city of San Fransokyo and the city was alive with activity. The streets were jammed with cars as people went to work the night shift, while the day wanted to get home as soon as possible. Other people went out to find some quality entertainment from the technology advance city.

Deep in the city, was a neighborhood that was well known for criminal activity. The epicenter of this underworld was a series of alleyways known as Good Luck Alley. The name was ironic considering you would need all the good luck in the world to get out alive in you strayed in there by accident.

At the far end of Good Luck Alley, an illegal bot fighting match was taking place. Technically, bot fighting wasn't illegal, but betting on it was. So, of course, it was a lucrative business in the underworld. Especially if you were the top bot fighter in the whole city.

Said person, was Yama. He was a very dangerous criminal in San Fransokyo. He had his own criminal empire and had connections in just about everything illegal and some legal businesses. His favorite passion was destroying other bot fighters' bots with his Little Yama.

Yama was gloating as he destroyed his latest opponent. "Ha! No one can beat Yama and his Little Yama! Does anyone dare to fight the mighty Little Yama?"

A child's voice responded. "I would like to try."

The crowd parted to reveal a kid, who might have been a teenager, if he wasn't so short, that he could pass as a prepubescent little kid. Seeing who his opponent was Yama laughed loudly.

"A kid? Shouldn't you be home little boy getting ready for bed," he taunted as the crowd jeered at him.

The kid frowned angrily for a second before he took a few steps forward with confidence. "My name is Hiro and you shouldn't underestimate me. Big things can come in little packages." He held out his Megabot as proof.

Yama laughed even harder when he saw the robot. "That's not a bot, its scrap metal! Get out of here kid, you don't belong here."

Hiro reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a good-sized wad of cash. Without a word, he handed the money to the pot before taking his seat across from Yama.

Seeing this kid wasn't going to go home, Yama told everyone to make their bets. "You have guts I'll admit kid, but you don't know when you're over your head. Any last words?"

"Don't underestimate me." Hiro snapped open his remote ready to fight. Megabot did a little bow ready to fight.

In response, Little Yama's saw blade whirled to life. Yama himself chuckled. "This will be like taking candy from a baby."

The signal was given and the fight began. Little Yama charged forward, its saw blade coming down fast at Megabot, who was just standing there. Right before the blade could hit, Megabot jumped to the side, avoiding damage.

Little Yama spun and lunged at the little robot, who once more dodged the attack. Little Yama attacked with its claws, trying to shred Megabot, who jumped out of the way.

Yama growled in frustration as his bot fighter continued to attack Hiro's bot fighter, never quite connecting with it. His opponent kept dancing around, evading the attacks. The criminal wasn't used to someone playing defense throughout a fight so his usual strategy wasn't working.

"You stupid brat! Fight me already unless you're too scared to try?"

"Oh, I'm not scared. I just wanted to get a feel for your attack style. Now that I know how you fight, get ready to be destroyed." Pressing a button on his remote Megabot's yellow face switched to red as the robot's posture shifted from defense to attack.

Unexpectedly, Megabot was a speedy little thing as it raced forward nimbly dodging Little Yama's attacks. Megabot sprang on to Little Yama's back and then split apart, the three pieces going in separate directions.

One piece slipped around the right foot, while the second went around the left hand, leaving the last piece to wrap around the Little Yama's waist. The bigger bot shook hard trying to get rid of the pieces.

Hiro's fingers danced around the remote as he skillfully disabled the leg and hand. Little Yama started to wobble now that it was only standing on one foot and without its saw blade, it was forced to rely only on its claws.

Yama snarled as he instructed his bot to tear the piece off his waist, which it did. The man ordered his bot back a bit so he could work on getting it rebalanced. He wanted to reclaim the lost limbs, but the Megabot pieces kicked them out of the fighting arena, preventing this from happening.

"Why you little piece of…I'm going to obliterate your bot!"

The teenager stuck his tongue out, his eyes never leaving the fight. He had Megabot come back together as one and kick the arm joint of the remaining hand. It was strong enough to break the arm completely off Little Yama.

Swiftly Megabot turned back to pieces and severed the remaining limb. Coming back together, the unique robot punched its way into the stomach. It crawled into the belly and undid the head from the inside.

Sliding out in pieces Megabot came back together. He performed a mock bow and his faces switched back. Hiro smiled pleased with himself. "Told you not to underestimate me. That money is mine."

He reached for the pot, his fingers grazing the money when Yama grabbed the boy's arm. Hiro whimpered as the man's grip tightened fearing his bones would snap. "Let me go! I won fair and square!"

"No one makes a fool of Yama, especially not a little kid! When I'm done with you no one will be able to identify your remains!"

The whole crowd was looking forward to watching Yama beat the stuffing out of the kid when the police raided the area. It took three police officers working together to get Yama to release Hiro, who was also promptly arrested for illegal bot fighting.

* * *

Half an hour later, Aunt Cass picked up her nephew and drove home with a disapproving expression on her face. "What were you thinking Hiro? Sneaking out of the house and going to Good Luck Alley to go bot fighting? You could have been killed!"

Hiro slouched in the passenger seat. "I was doing fine, besides I won. My bot was the best out there."

Aunt Cass took her eyes off the road for a second to look at her nephew. "You were not doing fine. The police had to save you from the criminal who was going to rip your arm off! How did you think you were going to get out of that?"

Hiro had no answer for that and remained silent the rest of the ride home. Once they were back at the Lucky Cat Café, Aunt Cass told the boy he was grounded for a week and go to his room.

In the bedroom, Hiro's older brother Tadashi was waiting for him. "Are you hurt?" He noticed the bruises on his little brother's arm and concerned he might have to go to the hospital for treatment.

"My arm's a little sore from where Yama grabbed me. It will probably be bruised for a little while, but other than that, I'm fine."

Tadashi looked at his brother in frustration. "Then what were you thinking tonight? Why did you go out in the first place? Bot fighting is illegal Hiro for a reason. It's too dangerous, especially when you go up against harden criminals!"

Hiro squeezed Megabot tightly. "I was bored okay! I graduated from high school last year and so far nothing has challenged me. I can't get a good paying job until I'm at least eighteen so what else am I supposed to do?"

Tadashi raised one eyebrow at that statement. "You could join me at college, I'm sure that would challenge you. With how smart you are you could make it to grad school in a few years. It wouldn't matter that you're only fourteen."

Hiro scoffed at the idea. School had always come easily to him and he doubted it would be any different if he went to college with his older brother. While he adored Tadashi with all his heart, sometimes his older brother could be a pain in the butt.

"Nerd school? I think I'll pass. I'm tired of going to school and learn things I already know."

Tadashi shook his head. His brother was wasting his potential with bot fighting. Hiro was always a natural genius when it came to school subjects. When his little brother had first started school his test scores had been so high he started off in second grade. From then on he just kept skipping grades until he graduated. Because of the gaps in ages as well as not connecting with people his own age, Hiro didn't have any friends.

Tadashi wished he had pushed his little brother a little harder during his younger years to try to make friends with people, instead of letting him always go off and do his own thing.

Sitting down on his bed, he picked up a picture of him and Hiro, when he teaching his brother to ride a bike. His little brother had been scared not wanting to Tadashi to let go of him. The first few times, he hadn't. When he finally did his brother had done fantastic.

He set the picture down and looked at another one on his nightstand. It was of the whole family, including their parents. It had been taken the day Hiro had arrived home from the hospital.

Running his fingers over his parents' faces, he smiled faintly. He had been so excited to have a little brother to take care of and his parents had been so proud of both their sons. "I wish you were still here. Maybe you could talk some sense into Hiro."

Moving the screen aside slightly, Tadashi saw Hiro hard at work on his bot fighter. The boy took a sip of a soda, pushing his chair towards the end of the desk to retrieve a screwdriver and then back to his original position.

Getting off the bed Tadashi stood by Hiro and ruffled his hair up a bit causing his younger sibling to whine. "Stop it, you're going to ruin my hairdo."

"The same hairdo which makes you look younger than you really are?" The young adult ruffled the hair a little more before squeezed Hiro's shoulder in affection. "You know I love you, Hiro."

Hiro looked up at Tadashi with a bright smile. "I know you do Tadashi. I love you too. Since I'm grounded, can you get me something to eat?"

Tadashi nodded and headed down the stairs. "What am I going to do with you little brother?" the young adult asked himself. He needed to stage an intercession and soon.

* * *

The next night, after making sure Hiro stayed put in their shared bedroom, Tadashi sat down with his aunt in the living room to talk to her. "We need to do something about Hiro and his bot fighting. I've tried talking to him about it, but he's not listening."

Holding her head in her hand Aunt Cass replied, "Don't remind me. Sometimes your brother is too smart for his own good. I tried to ground him and I locked all the doors before, but he still figured a way out. Neither of us can keep our eyes on him all day."

Tadashi acknowledged the truth of his aunt's words. In the year since Hiro graduated from high school, his little brother had been getting in more trouble. These last few months of him going out for bot fighting had been the latest stage of trouble.

Leaning back into the couch he added, "He says he's bored. That he has nothing to do and there's no challenge for him. Hiro thinks there's nothing out there for him to learn."

Aunt Cass pointed out that if Hiro wanted a challenge he should go to college. Hearing Tadashi explain what Hiro said to that idea last night and she let out a frustrated growl. "There has to be a way to convince him to go to college with you. SFIT is one of the best colleges in the country. You told me about how they push the boundaries of science every day there. Surely a place like that would help him grow."

The eldest nephew inclined his head in agreement. "I'm brainstorming on trying to figure out a way to get him to go with me. I need some more time to figure out what to do and say."

"I'm sure you'll do your best Tadashi. You always do."

Neither of them realized that Hiro had snuck down the stairs and eavesdropped on the conversation. He was in disbelief about the whole conversation.

"Do they really think that I need an intervention? Their hearts are in the right place, but they don't get it. Neither of them knows what it's liked to be bored in school."

Returning to his room, Hiro sat down at his desk and started looking online for another bot fight to go to. He had improved upon Megabot by making the magnetic servos have a stronger pull, which would allow Megabot to have a wider range of attack.

Finding a fight nearby, Hiro started to think of a way to get outside without being caught. The only door out was the one downstairs. I can probably sneak pass Aunt Cass, but Tadashi will see me for sure. Maybe I could get out via the garage?

Hiro slowly started to make his way down the stairs, keeping an eye out for Aunt Cass and Tadashi. Seeing neither of them, he hurried down the stairs intent on reaching the garage only to come face to face with both of his relatives waiting for him at the bottom.

"Oh hey, Aunt Cass, Tadashi what are you doing down here?"

"The question is what are you doing down here Hiro? Your grounded remember?"

Hiro opened his mouth to reply only to fall silent at the expression on both Aunt Cass and Tadashi's faces. Both had narrowed their eyes and their eyebrows formed an angry V shape. Their lips were frowning. Both of them were deeply disappointed by Hiro's escape attempt.

"Back to your room this instant young man! You are not allowed downstairs unless I tell you differently." Hanging his head, Hiro did as he was asked.

Aunt Cass massaged her head. "I don't know how much longer I can handle this. Have I been perfect? No! Do I know anything about children? No! Should I have picked up a book on parenting? Probably!"

Seeing how stressed she was, Tadashi handed her a plate of deserts. "You should go lie down Aunt Cass. I'll make sure Hiro doesn't try sneaking out again."

Aunt Cass headed upstairs with Mochi following behind her. He only stopped to eat the crumbs falling from the plate.

At this rate, Aunt Cass will eat everything from the café and she'll go out of business. Somehow, I need to get through to Hiro that his future lies in SFIT. But how?

Tadashi snapped his fingers and pulled out his cellphone. Pressing a button, he called one of his friends from school. "Hey, Fred I need your help. No nothing like that. Do you think you could help me with my little brother?"

* * *

The next day Tadashi spent the morning convincing his aunt of his plan. She was a bit skeptical, fearing that Tadashi's plan wouldn't help. The young adult assured her he would make sure it would work. All she had to do was lift Hiro's grounding for one night.

When Hiro came down for lunch they were both ready. He raised an eyebrow when he saw that Aunt Cass had made his favorite, spicy chicken wings. Something was up. "Okay, anyone want to tell me what's going on?"

Aunt Cass giggled nervously. "Why would you ask that Hiro?"

"You made my favorite food and you're giggling."

"Just sit down and eat Hiro."

Hiro did as he was asked. He had to admit the spicy chicken wings tasted better than usual. Aunt Cass really outdid herself this time. Something is up for sure he thought.

A few minutes later Tadashi spoke. "Hiro, Aunt Cass decided to lift the grounding for tonight." He noticed his little brother grin in joy before frowning. He was wondering why Aunt Cass had agreed to this.

"Hiro we're worried about you. These last few months haven't been easy for any of us. I know you think college isn't going to challenge you. However, you don't know that if you never go to SFIT to see for yourself."

Aunt Cass took over telling her youngest nephew was going with his older brother tonight to check out the college for himself. They wouldn't pressure him to join the school, but he at least had to do give it a chance.

So that night, Hiro rode on the back of his brother's moped as they headed off to the SFIT. "I have to admit, I'm a bit curious about your school. Just don't expect me to take an instant delight to it because you're pushing me towards it."

Tadashi chuckled and replied to his little brother. "Don't worry little brother, I assure you I won't be pushing you to join the school." That's what my friends are for he added mentally.

They finally reached the school and parked near the robotics lab. The brother's headed inside. Reaching the lab, Tadashi escorted his brother inside and watched with delight as his brother's eyes widened as he took in all the innovated tech.

Hiro's mind was blown. He had never seen so many new ideas in one place. Spider robot shoes that moved you across the room with ease, rocket boots on a cat to make it fly, and robotic arms playing a fierce game of ping pong.

"Coming through!" a female voice shouted giving Hiro enough time to jump out of the way. She was riding a bike that didn't have a chain and the wheels weren't mounted on the bike.

Taking off her helmet, she acknowledged the boys with a tilt of her head. "Hey Dashi, so this is your little genius brother? I thought you said he was fourteen, not ten."

"I'm not that short!" Hiro snapped as Tadashi laughed.

"So Go-Go how's the latest test on your mag-lev bike?"

"Still not fast enough. The electromagnetically-suspended wheels need to be stronger. The stronger the electromagnetism is means I'll have more power to go even faster." Turning her back to the boys she started working on her bike once more.

Hiro was steered towards another friend of Tadashi. This time it was a male. He waved to the boys. "So you're Hiro? Your brother mentioned he was going to bring you around sometime. Why don't you check out my latest tech design? Hope you're hungry."

Wasabi tossed an apple over to Hiro, who was amazed when the apple was cut into thin and precise slices.

"Nice isn't it," the big burly African American stated. He pressed a button revealing green plasma-based lasers between two magnetic containment uses. "This technology has ample applications from security to sanitation."

Wasabi walked over to his very organized tool station and placed his wielder in its precise place. "I got a system where everything has its own place. Neat huh?"

Hiro nodded politely even though he was a more chaotic inventor. Turning his head, he saw his brother talking to a perky, tall, honey blond haired girl. Judging from the way she was blushing it appeared she had a crush on Tadashi.

"Hiro come over here. I want you to meet my friend Honey Lemon."

Before he could even take a step Honey Lemon rushed over and started to shake his hand enthusiastically. "Hello, Hiro! I'm so glad to finally meet you! Your brother has told us all about you. Come on, your about to see the wonders of chemistry!"

Honey Lemon narrated the chemicals she was using to make a four hundred pound ball of tungsten carbide become brittle metal with a single touch. As soon as it was broke Hiro was covered in pink dust.

"Whoa, that's a lot of pink," he chuckled.

"Pink is Honey Lemon's favorite color," Tadashi explained. He looked around the lab searching for someone. "Has anyone seen Fred?"

"I'm here!" Fred shouted as he dashed through the doors, his mascot costume catching on the door. "Ah, I'm stuck. Very stuck!" Go-Go rolled her eyes and yanked him through the door before going back to work on her bike.

Hiro looked at Fred. He really didn't scream science nerd, he looked more like a comic book geek. "What major are you?" he asked enquiringly.

"Oh, I'm actually an English major taking online courses at home," Fred replied hurriedly. Bouncing to his feet he showed off the mascot costume. "Though I'm no scientist, I have striven to find my place here at SFIT! You're looking at not just the mascot of this school, but the official human dummy tester and science fiction proposal man!"

Hiro was confused by the last part of that sentence so Tadashi explained. "You know how Jules Vern inspired the scuba suit when he wrote, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea? Well, Fred's job here is to keep coming up with crazy ideas for a lot of the students to bring into reality."

"How often has that happened?"

"So far four times! I'm amazing right Dashi?"

Tadashi agreed he was one of a kind. He stood there as Fred went on and on about how awesome the school was and what it was like to work with the nerds to help improve the world. He mentioned if Hiro wanted to see something cool, he should see Tadashi's latest project.

"So what's my big brother up to? Trying to build nanites to cure people of diseases?" Hiro asked as he leaned against his brother's desk.

Tadashi ripped some tape off a roll and placed it on his brother's arm. "The field of medical nanites is only in its infancy little brother. Until we get there, I've come up with a solution to help people stay healthy."

With that he pulled the tape off hard leaving a slight abrasion on his brother's arm causing the boy to shout in pain. Beaming, he watched as his project Baymax came to life.

"Hello, I am Baymax. I am your personal healthcare companion. On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"

Tadashi watched and answered all of Hiro's questions about Baymax, who didn't seem to mind being talked about as if he couldn't hear them. Admittedly, he was working on a new chip to help Baymax develop a personality of his own.

Once Baymax deactivated Tadashi turned to his brother. "So, what do you think of this place?"

"It's really amazing and your friends are cool. It would be fun to go here."

"I sense a but coming."

"How would the teachers react to me? In the past, some of them treated me as if I was a baby or didn't interact with me at all. Is that going to be the same here?"

"I can assure Hiro Hamada that won't be the case," a kind older male voice said. Hiro's jaw dropped in astonishment as saw who was standing in the doorway. Why hadn't his brother told him the famous Robert Callaghan taught here?!

The man held out his hand and Hiro shook it enthusiastically. "So your Tadashi's little brother. He told me he had a genius brother who was interested in robots."

"Yeah, I love them. I designed my own bot fighter based on magnetic servos to take on opponents! I can't believe you teach here! I'm a huge fan of your work."

Callaghan chuckled. "It's nice to meet a fan as young as you Hiro. I see great potential in you. We have a showcase coming up in a few weeks. If you come up with an innovative piece of technology the judges might just give you the scholarship to start as a student here."

Hiro promised he would be there with something great. In the background, Tadashi pumped his fist. He knew if Hiro got a tour of this place he would want to enroll here. I really need to thank Fred for helping to convince Callaghan to stay late and meet Hiro.

* * *

Hearing that Tadashi's plan was a success Aunt Cass lifted Hiro's grounding so he could have access to the garage/lab and gather the materials he would need for his showcase project.

Hiro's mind buzzed with ideas as he spent hours in the garage working on his ideas. There was a spring in his step and he was really excited, babbling about how his projects would improve the world.

Therefore Tadashi was surprised when five days later, Hiro came upstairs and asked for his help since he was scraping his project idea. Concerned, the older boy followed his brother into the lab to see what the problem was. He stood next to his brother's workstation as Hiro turned on his computer.

"Why are you scrapping your project, Hiro? I thought you were loving it."

"Because it's not really something new. Here, I'll show you." He brought up a file labeled Project Super and showed his brother the blueprint designs for his former project.

"I was inspired by your friends' school projects and decided to create armor based ideas around their projects. I was thinking of how law enforcement could use them to help in crises, but they ended up looking more like superhero costumes."

Tadashi looked over the blueprints and was amazed by how much detail and thought went into them. Each set of armor was uniquely designed to use a person's project to help them achieve whatever goal they had in mind.

The armor based on Go-Go's project would help apprehend fleeing criminals without endangering civilian lives. Honey Lemon's project would come in handy when dealing with hostage situations. Wasabi's armor would be perfect riot gear.

Tadashi wasn't sure what Fred's lizard suit could be used for, but its jumping capabilities could be put to good use. Hiro had even designed armor based on both Baymax and Tadashi himself. A robot medic that could fly an injured patient to a hospital was a great idea. Tadashi's own armor idea was based around the idea of having robot parts on hand to quickly assemble tools for any occasion.

"Little brother, these are astounding! I can't believe you came up with all these brilliant ideas! Even if you created one of these for the showcase I'm sure you would win."

"I know they're cool. I was going to design one based on myself, but decided against it," Hiro admitted. "The problem is all of these ideas were based on someone else's ideas. I need something really original if I want to win that showcase."

Tadashi agreed with his brother and asked if his brother had any other ideas for the showcase.

Hiro brought up a few half thought of ideas he had come up with only to dismiss. There was an idea for a power planter that would plant trees, shrubs, and bushes to restore devastated landscapes. It was a good idea except it would be a mobile lightning rod which would result in the very plants in planted catching fire.

Another idea had been to create a probe that would tunnel under the earth and explore the underground looking for valuable resources for use. It was a sound idea except the probe might unintentionally set off a fault line.

A third idea he had come up with involved creating a mobile garbage and recycling unit to help keep the city streets clean and reduce waste. It was a good idea, but the size it would need to be was way too big to fit through the doors to the showcase hall.

"These are all good ideas little brother. You could build any one of these. I'm sure with a little time you could perfect them."

"But not in time for the showcase. I really need to come up with something amazing and has the best wow factor. I can't flub in front of Professor Callaghan!" the boy whined unhappily.

"Trust me, whatever you come up with Professor Callaghan will like. He loves encouraging young minds to reach their full potential. Since your specialty is robotics, you already have his attention."

"Attention yes, respect no!" The boy brought his hands together and pleaded with Tadashi to help him come up with something that was feasible and award-winning.

Tadashi responded he couldn't help Hiro with creating an idea. His little brother would have to earn his spot at SFIT, just like he had.

"Come on big brother, I need help! Can't you give me some hint or wisdom to at least get me started?"

Tadashi snatched up his little brother and threw him over his shoulders. "Let's get the blood pumping to your head. You have an idea yet?"

"Stop it! This isn't any way to treat your little brother!"

"I'm just trying to get you to see things from a new angle. Every problem can be solved if you look at it from different directions."

Hiro was getting dizzy from being upside down. He struggled to pull himself up. If I could separate myself into different pieces and reassemble I wouldn't be in this position the boy thought.

"I GOT IT! I know what I'm going to do!" Hiro shouted in delight.

Glad that he helped his little brother out, Tadashi pulled Hiro upright then set him down in his work chair. "Now that's the genius brother I know and love. What's your new idea?"

The boy grinned mischievously, "You'll just have to wait until the showcase to see the final project." Leaning back in his chair he did say, "It is going to take some time to complete. I wouldn't mind company while I work."

"I can certainly provide company. We'll make it a bonding experience with your soon to be friends and classmates."

As his little brother started to work on his new project, Tadashi pulled out his phone to call his friends. Everything was going to be okay now. Hiro's life was back on track and the world would see his brilliance. Nothing could go wrong.


	2. Overcoming Grief

It was the night of the showcase and the entire school had gone all out to make sure this was a showcase everyone remembered. Everywhere you looked, there were students answering questions, some even showing technology they had developed while there.

The showcase hall had been cleaned to perfection. All around the room dozens of different projects had been set up for the judges to look at. Some of the exhibits included a fully underwater exercise machine, a helmet that was supposed to stimulate latent intelligence, and even a prototype bubble transport.

Hiro and his new friends were wheeling in six giant green garbage bins into the hall. The teenager was super excited and couldn't wait until it was his turn to present his project. "Everyone is going to be amazed by my invention! It's the most revolutionary tech ever invented."

"So modest Hiro," Go-Go remarked sarcastically. She blew a bubble with her gum, then went back to chewing it.

"Oh Go-Go, you need to perk up! There's nothing wrong with Hiro being confident. He's so cute and adorable."

"That's my baby brother, he's always been adorable," Tadashi chuckled as he ruffled Hiro's hair. Hiro batted his hand away while laughing.

"I am just glad that Hiro's invention isn't messy. Look around here! Do you see how messy some of these exhibits are?" Wasabi said as he pointed to an exhibit for super growth formula for plants. Some soil had fallen to the floor. The guy shuddered in horror.

"Oh come on Wasabi. A little dirt never hurt anyone. In fact, if you want to I can tell you all about real dirt including my…"

"Fred, not here!"

The group propped the garbage cans up near Hiro's exhibit stand. Hiro pulled something out a bag he's been carrying and placed it on his head, adjusting the device so it fitted more comfortably. He took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves.

Aunt Cass came over and gave him a big hug. "I'm so proud of you Hiro. I know you'll do well. Knock their socks off."

"Thanks, Aunt Cass I will."

The judges still had two exhibits to look at before they reached Hiro's. Curious to see what other people had come up with, he followed his brother and friends to have a look at the other projects.

* * *

The first exhibit had several models of what appeared to be towers made of plants. Three computer screens displayed an animated sequence showing the towers with nothing on them then progressing to the point they had a whole rainforest on them.

The young lady, about eighteen with dark skin and curly black hair, was explaining her design. "As you can see with the increase of carbon in the air cities are slowly losing the amount of oxygen needed to keep everyone alive.

My invention is creating a sky forest. Each tower will be six levels high and with different types of plants coexisting side by side. A water filtration system will run throughout the tower to water them, while a series of temperature control units will ensure healthy growth.

With this healthy environment, the plants will reduce the amount of carbon in the cities while providing food and homes for animals. One can even be built as a sanctuary for rare plants and animals.

A small number of caretakers living in organic houses would be able to tend to all the jobs needed to care and maintain the towers."

The judges clapped their hands and started asking Ms. Greene questions about her project. How long would it take for a rainforest to grow? What kind of materials would she use to build her project? Where would she put these towers?

"I have to say that's a pretty impressive idea. Too bad it would take ten years to grow to full capacity," Go-Go stated softly. Next to her Honey Lemon was taking pictures with her cellphone excited by Ms. Greene's idea.

After finishing their questioning, the judges moved on to the next exhibit done by another eighteen-year-old. This one was a young man with blond hair and he was wearing a red suit with a canister attached to his back. It was filled with water.

"As you know wildfires are getting stronger and lasting longer each year. Even with firefighters and fire planes, it's not enough to put out the blazes quickly enough especially when trying to evacuate people from their homes.

This automatic sprinkler suit can carry up to 6 gallons of water, either fresh or salt, and allowing a single firefighter to put out several fires for miles simply by walking through a blaze. The suit itself is fireproof and will protect the wearer from extreme heat or debris.

The wearer can even adjust the nozzles to increase the flow of water in one direction or completely turn them off to reserve the water. This is the future of firefighting."

Again there were questions asked by the judges wanting to know about Mr. Burns' invention. Knowing he was up next Hiro hurried back to his spot ready to start his demonstration. He needed to get up on his stage only he was frozen in fear.

* * *

I can't do this. I can't do this! Who am I kidding? I'm only fourteen years old! There are so many other great inventions here and what if Professor Callaghan thinks my invention is a flop? What if the microbots fail to act because I'm so terrified?

He felt someone touch him on the shoulders and he jumped a few inches. Turning around he saw Tadashi staring at him. His big brother squeezed his shoulder. "Tadashi, I'm scared," Hiro admitted softly.

"I know you are. Public speaking and demonstrating technology can make anyone nervous. Just take a few deep breaths little brother. Then let all that tension out of your body."

Hiro did as he was instructed and soon started to feel better. He was calmer and he didn't feel so stressed out. "Thanks, Tadashi. You're the best." Hiro hugged his brother before running up on the stage ready to present his project to the judges.

Tadashi joined his friends and Aunt Cass in the crowd. He had to also mentally calm down. This was a very important moment in Hiro's life. If he saw Tadashi nervous then he would get nervous as well.

Hiro stood on the stage, reached into his pocket, and pulled an extremely tiny robot out. "My name is Hiro Hamada and this is my project. What you see here is a microbot. Now one small robot isn't going to change the world, but what happens when there is more than one?"

The garbage bins began to shake and rattled before they tipped over revealing they had been filled with microbots. People moved aside as the tiny machines moved across the floor to the stage forming a giant square.

Hiro let go of the one he was holding watching it join its friends. "These microbots work together as a community to accomplish any job they're given. Using my neural transmitter I am able to tell the robots what to do."

He demonstrated by taking off the transmitter causing the microbots to fall to the ground. He put it back on and the microbots formed a hand to wave at the ground. "This technology has hundreds of different possible uses in almost all fields of work. Take construction for an example."

Hiro walked to the bots as they started forming a tower. "What can take months or years to build can be accomplished in a matter of hours." The microbots moved aside to reveal a tower they built before building a staircase up to the top.

"The microbots can build the buildings while reassigning construction worker teams to guide them to make sure the buildings are one hundred percent safe. Now onto another application of these robots."

Hiro stepped off the tower and was caught by the microbots, which formed a moving conveyor belt, his feet strapped down tightly as the microbots traveled across the building and up to the ceiling.

"Imagine transportation to anywhere you need to go without the risk of causing an accident. The microbots could bring pollution from car emissions down to zero because they wouldn't need fuel to go, just your mind."

Being set back down on the stage, Hiro had the microbots form a giant version of themselves. "If you can dream it, the microbots can do it. Thank you." The presentation ended as Hiro sent all the microbots back the garbage cans and turned the transmitter off.

Getting off the stage he stood before the judges waiting for their questions. Looking up at Professor Callaghan, Hiro hoped he had impressed the man enough to win the scholarship.

The judges spoke amongst each other. The lady judge asked the first question. "An impressive project Mr. Hamada. You mentioned in your presentation you would reassign construction crews to guide the microbots in the construction process, so they would still be able to keep their jobs. How would they work together to do the job efficiently?"

"With some adjustments to the neural transmitter, I can construct a hive mind that allows a communication link between the workers and the foreman. This way everyone is still working together without worrying about what someone else is doing."

The lady judge nodded and wrote down some notes. She stepped and the second judge, a young black man with glasses, asked his question. "How much time would you need to create enough microbots for general use?"

Hiro rubbed the back of his head. "It took a few weeks to create the microbots I have. I had to design them before I could build and program them. The time will shorten as I get better at creating them."

The man nodded and stepped aside to let Professor Callaghan stand in front of Hiro. The teenager gulped as he locked eyes with the man. The professor smiled and asked Hiro a simple question. "Why do you think we should give you the scholarship?"

"I want to come to SFIT to find something to challenge my mind. Growing up, school work was too easy for me and I never felt as if I was really learning. Here at this school, I've seen how far teachers push their students to go past their limits and grow. I think that's what I need in my life."

Professor Callaghan nodded. He and the other judges would need to confer with one another before they announced the scholarship winner. Hiro let out a breath and rejoined his family.

Aunt Cass hugged Hiro tightly and squealed in delight. "You were amazing Hiro! I have a strong feeling your invention will win! Think about it, my two nephews going to college together, it's a dream come true."

The others were all congratulating him on a job well done. Hiro basked in all the attention, but he kept looking at the central stage. The judges had reappeared and now he would learn for sure if he won the scholarship.

Professor Callaghan tested the mike before speaking. "Thank you, everyone, for coming here for tonight's showcase. My colleagues and I were very impressed by your countless innovated designs. No doubt all of you will go on to do great things.

While you are all winners, only one of you will be getting the scholarship to SFIT. Also remember, just because you didn't get the scholarship doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get in the old fashion way. I plan on telling the acceptance committee all about tonight for future students benefits.

That being said, I would like to give the winner this scholarship. This person invention was not only innovative and sound science but a project that could help the world in the near future. The winner of the scholarship is… Hiro Hamada and his microbots."

Cheers went up throughout the crowd and his friends were congratulating him. Hiro himself was frozen in disbelief. He didn't even feel his brother steer him up the stage so he could shake Professor Callaghan's hand and accepted the scholarship letter.

"Good work Mr. Hamada. I will enjoy teaching you in class soon enough"

Hiro unfroze and thanked his hero enthusiastically. "Thank you, Professor Callaghan. I know with your help, my microbots will develop even further."

The professor smiled and escorted the boys back over to Hiro's exhibit to rejoin with the others, but came to a halt when a blond businessman and his female assistant blocked their path.

Professor Callaghan's eyes narrowed. "Alastair Krei, what are you doing here?" The man's tone of voice indicated he really disliked this person. That put the brothers on edge.

"Robert, you don't have to be defensive. The SFIT Showcase is a public event meaning I can be here if I want to be. My assistant and I were simply looking for bright young minds to hire for Krei Tech."

Professor Callaghan's mouth thinned doubting Krei's statement. He watched as Krei turned his attention to Hiro.

"Impressive invention kid. Your microbots are incredible little machines. My R&D team would love to work on them. They're some of the brightest minds out there and will be able to improve your microbots greatly."

Tadashi sensed Mr. Krei was about to ask to buy the microbots from Hir. He was ready to step in to protect Hiro from giving his invention away for some quick cash only for his brother to surprise him.

"Thank you for the compliments, Mr. Krei. I'm sure you have many geniuses working for you. Unfortunately, I don't want to be one of them. My microbot invention is not for sale."

Krei sputtered in disbelief. "Are you turning down thousands of dollars to go to school? You wouldn't even need the scholarship if you sold them to me!"

Callaghan stepped forward and pushed Krei back a foot. "The boy said no Krei. He's smart enough to see you cut corners when it comes to sound science. I suggest you leave before I call campus security.

Krei's assistant tapped her boss's shoulder. "Mr. Krei you do have a meeting in half an hour with company investors. We should get going." The businessman nodded and followed his assistant out of the building.

Upon rejoining the group Fred asked who Hiro had been talking to. When he mentioned who it was Fred's eyes lit up. "A real businessman wanted to buy your tech and you said no? Unbelievable, this is just like the start of a comic book story line! Do you think he'll try to threaten or steal from you?"

Go-Go smacked Fred with the back of her hand. "Knock it off Fred, the real world doesn't have super villains."

"There's nothing wrong with imagining it does though!"

Aunt Cass interrupted the two before they could get into a heated debate. "Who is hungry? I am and I feel like going out tonight. Who wants a noodle burger?"

Everyone cheered that idea and got ready to leave as they each went to collect a garbage bin.

Professor Callaghan raised his hand to stop them. "If you don't mind, I would like to take a chance to see Hiro's invention up close. Hiro, do you mind staying behind for a little bit to tell me more about your invention."

"I would love to! Can I stay Aunt Cass?" Hiro asked in a pleading tone and even using puppy dog eyes to make him look more adorable.

Aunt Cass replied, "You don't have to resort to begging. Of course, you can stay and talk with Professor Callaghan for a bit. Just text us when you're ready to take your invention home."

Hiro pumped his fist and started shooing the rest of them out of the building. Tadashi knew how important this was to his little brother and left with no protest.

* * *

Outside the showcase hall, the friends headed towards the parking lot behind Aunt Cass, who kept going on about how proud she was of Hiro and how her nephews both were college boys now.

Honey Lemon cuddled up close to Tadashi and gave his arm a tight squeeze. "You must be over the moon Dashi. Your plan worked! Hiro is going to be studying here and not running around the city bot fighting."

Tadashi nodded in agreement. "I am proud my plan worked. So, I can still count on you guys to help me make sure Hiro stays on the straight and narrow? "

"Dude, we're all friends now. Of course, we'll look out for the newest member of our gang. I got to start coming up with a nickname to describe Hiro. You think he would like little buddy?"

"He doesn't' need a reminder of how short he is Fred. That name would give him a complex," Wasabi pointed out to his friend

"Nicknames can wait until later, Shouldn't we puppy train your brother before he does something incredibly stupid around Professor Callaghan? I swear, I could practically see a leash connecting those two," Go-Go commented off hand.

The group laughed while Tadashi indignation sputtered, "My brother's not a puppy! He's just excited to meet the man who was the pioneer in the field of robotics. I'm sure with a little time Hiro will able to act normal around Professor Callaghan."

His friends were teasing him about his jerky reaction when everyone heard the sounds of screams and there was smoke billowing in the air. Dread filled Tadashi's body as he realized where the smoke appeared to be deriving from, which was the showcase hall. "Hiro."

He took off running, his friends dashing after him. They were also worried about the fire hoping everyone was able to get out before it consumed the building.

Upon reaching the building Tadashi stopped dead in his tracks. The building was on fire and it was growing by the second. He scanned the crowd of people but didn't see his brother anywhere.

He reached out and grabbed a running evacuee by the wrist. "What's going on? Did everyone make it out of the building?"

"There was an explosion and the building caught fire. Almost everyone made it out, but Professor Callaghan and the showcase winner are still inside."

Tadashi let her go and started dashing towards the burning building. Help was on the way, but they wouldn't get here in time before the building collapsed. Someone had to help and that person was him. His brother and professor were counting on him.

He made it halfway up the stairs before someone grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him away from the fire. "Let me go! I have to save them."

"Tadashi stop! You can't go in there! The fire is burning quickly and the smoke makes it impossible to see! You wouldn't find them," Wasabi shouted into his friend's ears.

Wasabi held Tadashi in a tight bear hug while the girls grabbed his legs to keep him from kicking Wasabi. Fred had run over and was keeping Aunt Cass steady. She looked ready to collapse.

"Let me go! Hiro needs me! I can't lose him too!" The group held onto him tighter. They manhandled Tadashi until they were back on the path away from the building.

As soon as they reached the path, there was a giant explosion. Everyone was forced to the ground as the building collapsed on itself. Tadashi wiggled free from his friends, tears streaking down his face. "Hiro."

* * *

It took hours for the fire to be put out. An investigation was underway to determine the source of the fire. Aunt Cass and Tadashi went home numbed neither one wanted to accept the reality that Hiro was gone for good.

They went through the next three days in zombie mode as they waited to hear from the fire department. Knowing it could take weeks to years to determine what caused a fire had them on edge.

On the third day, they finally got a call from the Fire Marshal. Aunt Cass put him on speaker phone so Tadashi could hear what was being said. "Thank you for calling me back Marshal Punch."

"You're welcome. I wanted to inform you that we've been sifting through the debris trying to locate the body of your nephew, but we haven't had any luck. Considering how many flammable objects and chemicals were in the building when it caught fire, there's a strong possibility the fire was hot enough to reduce the bodies to ashes. We'll keep looking, but I wanted to let you know there's a strong possibility we're not going to find any remains."

Aunt Cass struggled to keep her tears from falling. "Thank you for the information, Mr. Punch. If you find my nephew's remains please call me." She hung up the phone as tears started to fall from her eyes.

"We…don't even… have a body to bury," Aunt Cass broke down and sobbed on the counter. Mochi climbed up and started rubbing against Cass. She clutched him tightly as she buried her face in his fur upset.

Tadashi felt hollow inside. Without a body, there was a small chance Hiro survived. Looking at how his aunt was breaking down, the college man knew he had to stop fooling himself. With a heavy heart, he hugged his aunt. "It will be okay Aunt Cass. It will be okay."

Planning the funeral was the hardest thing Tadashi and his aunt had to do. With no body to bury or even identifiable ashes, they had nothing to put in the family tomb. Instead, they placed small mementos in the tomb, which held great significance to Hiro.

At least they had a photo of the teenager to place on the family alter while the service was being conducted. While most of the funeral guests wore black, Tadashi, Aunt Cass, and his friends wore white, the color of mourning in Asian culture.

After the service, the small group went back to the Lucky Cat Café for their own private meal and to share their grief with one another. They were all going to miss the little genius who had grown on everyone. Tadashi and Aunt Cass took turns telling stories about Hiro growing up.

Later that night, after making sure Cass went to bed, Tadashi moved his screen to block off the main area so he wouldn't have to look at his brother's side of the room. He knew he would eventually have to go through it, but tonight was not that night. "I miss you, little brother. I miss you."

* * *

A week after the fire, Tadashi was still deeply depressed about his loss. He knew he had to move on with his life, but the pain was still raw. What he needed was a grief counselor only he didn't want to talk to one. At least, not a human grief counselor.

He brought Baymax and his charger unit to his home. Setting it down in the garage he stood back and softly said. "Ow."

Baymax appeared. "Hello, I am Baymax. I am a personal health care companion. I was alerted to your need for medical attention when you said ow. How can I help you today?"

"Hey Baymax, I need to upgrade you again for new medical procedures. Is that okay?"

"Certainly Tadashi. I strive to be the best health care companion I can be." The robot looked around and realized he was not in the lab anymore. Instead, he was in a garage. "This is not your lab. May I inquire where we are?"

"We're currently in my garage. I needed you here instead of at school," Tadashi replied in a sad voice. He removed Baymax's health care chip and put in the computer. He started downloading psychological data and coding it into the chip. A few minutes later he was done and put the chip back in the port.

"How do you feel now Baymax?"

"I am a robot. I do not have emotions."

Tadashi shook his head. He really needed to get to work on that personality chip. "Follow me upstairs. We have somethings we need to talk about."

They headed inside. After a quick introduction to Aunt Cass and Mochi, the duo made it upstairs to the attic bedroom. Baymax walked around the room in his strange little way taking everything in. "Where is Hiro? I detect his skin cells, but I don't see him."

Tadashi looked away from his final project. "Hiro's gone Baymax. He died in an accidental fire." Baymax blinked a few times processing this information. "That's why I updated your healthcare chip. I needed to talk to a grief counselor."

Baymax blinked again as he accessed his new database. Pulling up the section on grief counseling, he sat down on a stool and folded his hands over one another.

"Grieving is a natural part of a loss. Especially if a person loses someone very important to them suddenly. You lost your brother in a fire, something you never expected to happen."

Tadashi nodded. He plucked Megabot of the desk and fiddled with it in his hands. "I'm responsible for Hiro's death. If I hadn't pushed him to enter the showcase, he wouldn't have been in that building."

Tilting his head, Baymax replied. "You feel guilt over your brother's death because you encouraged him to be where an accidental fire happened. Please tell me, why did you push him in the first place?"

"Because I didn't want him to continue bot fighting. He was wasting his talents and endangering himself going to them. I thought if he went to SFIT, he would be safe there. He'd make something of himself."

Tadashi looked at the floor sorrowfully. He lightly clutched Megabot in his left hand as he whispered, "College should have saved my brother life. Not take it away."

"You could not have known there would be a fire. If it hadn't occurred would you still believe your school was a safe place?"

"Yes, no, I'm not sure. After what happened, I'm starting to doubt there is a truly safe place in the world."

The young man looked over at his brother's empty bed. He cuddled Megabot close to his chest. "Hiro is I mean was my heart. I love him so much, more than he even knew. He is I mean was more than my little brother. He was my best friend, confidant, and the person I felt closest to in the world. I feel like my heart's breaking."

Baymax scanned his creator. He saw no signs of a broken heart or the syndrome. His scan did indicate the chemical activity in his brain and several of his body systems were in slight distress. "Loss is part of life just a grieving is. My database indicates you should ask your support system to help you during this critical time."

That actually got a laugh out of Tadashi. Baymax straight forward advice was wise and funny because of how he had phrased it. "Your right Baymax. For now, I am satisfied with my care."

The robot nodded and toddled down the stairs as carefully as possible so as not to bump into anything. Eventually, he ended up back in the garage and his charger.

Aunt Cass came upstairs shortly thereafter. She held her arms together and looked at Tadashi sadly. "Did you bring Baymax home because you couldn't talk to me?"

Closing his eyes Tadashi took a deep breath. "Aunt Cass. It's complicated right now. I know you want to help me and so do my friends, but it's too soon. Everything feels raw inside."

Aunt Cass figured out what Tadashi was trying to avoid saying. Right now, he couldn't accept human contact and emotions. Talking to a robot, who wouldn't pity him or struggle to say the right thing, was easier.

Walking over she kissed him on his forehead. "Baymax is a wonderful robot. Just remember that eventually, you'll need the help of your friends and family to see you through this. I'll be downstairs if you need me."

* * *

A few days later Tadashi was in his probability and statistic class. He wasn't really paying attention to the teacher as he explained the different formulas used in probability.

Tadashi looked out the window once more at the ruins of where the showcase hall had been. It was still roped off as the fire investigators took more samples to figure out what had started the fire.

"Mr. Hamada! Please pay attention when I am speaking!" the teacher demanded, startling the young man. "You can daydream at home not in my classroom."

"Yes sir," Tadashi replied. He ignored the whispering around him. Some students thought he should have stay home if he was distracted. Others were pitying him because of his loss.

Finally, it was time for lunch and he hustled to the cafeteria. He wanted to avoid any contact with other people, but his friends were waiting right there at the door for him. "Hi, guys."

Honey Lemon was holding her hands tightly around her phone. "Tadashi, why are you avoiding us? Did we do something wrong?"

"You're not the only one who suffered a loss you know. We cared about Hiro too," Wasabi added.

"Dude you don't have to suffer alone. Trust me, bad things happen when people try to go on it alone after a loss. You don't need to read comic books to know that."

Go-Go punched Fred in the arm and stopped chewing her gum. "Is talking to a robot really more important than us?"

"No of course not! All of you are my best friends. I know Hiro was your friend, but he was my little brother." Pulling off his hat he started to finger the brim trying to find the right words to say. "Is it wrong to think no one else has the right to mourn my brother in the same way as me?"

Honey Lemon gave Tadashi a quick hug whispering that everyone mourned in their own way. He shouldn't feel like he was the only one with the right to mourn though. "When you are at your lowest point Dashi, there's nowhere to go except up. We'll be here for you and you'll be there for us."

"Honey Lemon's right. Don't think you have to grieve by yourself, my friend. I'm not afraid to get a few drops of tears on my shirt. I can always clean it later."

Putting his hat back on, Tadashi hugged each of them, including Go-Go who only allowed it to last three seconds. The friends went inside the cafeteria to have some lunch. After getting their food they sat down and watched the local news on the cafeteria TVs.

There were the local weather and a few announcements about events going on in the city. Next was a surprise bulletin. "We have a report coming in just now. According to our man in the field, the police are making a major roundup of the criminal element in San Fransokyo as they flee from the area known as Good Luck Alley. We now go to our man in the field."

The image changed showing police cars in the Good Luck Alley neighborhood. Several criminals were being shunted into large lock up vans, including Yama, who was yelling loudly.

"I'm telling you it wasn't any of us whole stole all the tech! We've been running for our lives from those crazy black robots! They're trying to kill us!"

Yama was shoved into the lockup truck as the door was slammed in his face. The reporter on the scene started to speak. "Milo Gladstone reporting on location. Last night several tech companies had their products stolen from their storage warehouse. This was on top of the thefts of various medical equipment and pharmaceuticals which had happened the day before.

The police tracked the stolen property to Good Luck Alley. Presumably, the products were destined to be sold on the black market here by the local criminal element for thousands of dollars. Luckily, the police arrived in time to stop this from happening. According to the police, less than three percent of the stolen merchandise has been recovered, but hope remains high in finding all the stolen goods.

While the criminals continue to assert they're being framed or make accusations that some type of robot forced them to flee with their lives, the police are not falling for this tactic. For more updates on this story, keep watching this news channel. Back to the studio."

Go-Go shook her head. "What kind of criminals get driven out of hiding by robots. They probably just saw a swarm of rats."

Wasabi juddered as he imagined a swarm of rats overrunning the campus. "I really hope no rats come here. Do you know what kind of diseases they can transmit?"

"I think rats are cute."

"No, they are the minions of bad guys who live in the sewers! Silent messengers and terrors to all who walk above!"

Tadashi laughed at the antics of his friends. As they debated about the logistics of rats taking over San Fransokyo for a few moments he felt like his old self. The pain of his brother's death lessened for a little bit.

Late that day, when Tadashi was leaving to go home, he walked over to the remains of the showcase hall. A few investigators were still probing for clues about how the fire spread.

"I miss you, little buddy. I wish you were here right now," he whispered. Hitching his backpack up, he slowly walked away from the ruins to go back home and help Aunt Cass as the café.

* * *

More time passed and soon it was three and a half weeks since Hiro died. It was late at night and Tadashi was having trouble sleeping. At the moment he was having a nightmare.

_Tadashi was outside the showcase hall. He saw a ring of fire forming around Hiro who was very frightened. "Help me Tadashi! You have to save me!" _

_ "I'm coming little brother just hold on!" Tadashi started running towards the building. As he ran he noticed the building was moving further and further away. _

_ "Tadashi save me!" _

_"I'm coming, little brother! I'll save you!" Tadashi yelled only for an explosion to knock him backwards." _

"HIRO!" the young man shouted as he sat up straight on his bed. His heart was pounding as sweat dripped down his face. He took a few deep breaths trying to get control of his heart pounding.

He heard Baymax wobbly steps as the robot came over. "Are you all right? I detect heightened stress levels and an increase in heart rate. Have you been exercising?"

Tadashi shook his head. "I just had a nightmare Baymax. I'll be fine in a minute." He took another deep breath to calm down. Then he swiveled his head and looked at Baymax in confusion.

"What are you doing up here anyways Baymax? You're supposed to be downstairs in the garage recharging."

"There is a person in the garage accidentally activated me. He ordered me into the house, which is when I heard signs of your distress."

Tadashi eyes widened in fear! He threw off his blanket, grabbed a baseball bat from under his bed and headed downstairs with Baymax following him. "Wake Aunt Cass and tell her what's going on. I'm going to see if I can subdue the intruder."

Tiptoeing down the stairs, Tadashi opened the garage door a fraction of an inch. Inside, he could make out a tall dark figure in black. He was on Hiro's lab computer trying to do something.

Hot blooded anger rushed through Tadashi. He would not allow someone to mess with his late brother's work. He pushed open the door and took a swing at the man with the bat.

The intruder managed to hop out of the way and stood facing Tadashi. The intruder was wearing a kabuki mask and gloves. Even with it on, the college student could tell this intruder, was not happy about being discovered.

"Get out of here!" Tadashi swung the bat a few more times only for the man to dodge a few more times. The intruder threw a few punches at him, which Tadashi maneuvered around.

The intruder then rushed Tadashi and tackled him to the ground. Tadashi struggled to get him off him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw what the intruder had been doing with the computer. The man had been attempting to download files related to Hiro's microbots and neural transmitter.

Tadashi kneed the man hard forcing him to let go. He scrambled towards the computer to disconnect the USB drive. He was almost in reach when he felt something stab him just above his right ankle.

Tadashi went down, got off guard by the attack and his right foot hurt a lot. He gripped the injury tightly as he watched the intruder retrieve his drive and run out the garage.

There was nearly inaudible clink as something hit the ground. Scooting on the floor Tadashi picked up whatever the intruder dropped. A chill went down his spine. In his hand was a single microbot.

The police arrived shortly afterward. Baymax was treating Tadashi's cut by disinfecting it and wrapping a clean bandage around the injury.

Aunt Cass was scolding her nephew. "What did you think you were doing? You should have called the police and not try to stop the intruder yourself! What if he had a gun? For heaven's sake, I don't want to lose the last of my family to a gunshot!"

A few people winced at the volume she was screaming at. "I'm sorry Aunt Cass, but I lost it when I saw the intruder on the lab computer. He was downloading files from Hiro's project."

The officer in charge started asking questions. "So did you recognize the intruder?"

"No, he was dressed in all black and had gray gloves on. His face was covered by kabuki style mask."

The officer raised an eyebrow at this. "You sure kid? I don't recall ever hearing about an intruder wearing a kabuki mask."

"I know what I saw sir! The man took files from my brother's computer and fled. He was purposely after those files."

"Why would anyone be interested in your brother's files? Also, if this was theft of your brother's property, then why isn't he making this report?"

"BECAUSE HE'S DEAD! He died in the fire at SFIT. His invention won and now someone came after the blueprints for some reason that I can only imagine is for a bad purpose!"

Seeing the stress Tadashi was under, Aunt Cass asked Baymax to take Tadashi upstairs to rest while she finished talking to the police. Picking up his patient bridal style the health care robot toddled up the steps with Mochi following behind him.

Turning her attention back to the police officers. "My nephew is not a liar officer. Baymax also encountered the intruder and can provide you with video of the intruder."

"We'll look at it, but it won't be much use in court. There still writing the legality laws when it comes to using information gathered by AI robots." The officer told his men to take a look in the garage for clues.

"We'll need to send a tech here in the morning to check on the contents of the computer. If any data was stolen from there we need to take a look at it ourselves," the officer explained to Aunt Cass who nodded.

Upstairs in his bedroom, Tadashi looked at the tiny microbot in his hands. How was this here and intact? Why did that intruder have it? It didn't make sense. "First thing in the morning Baymax, you and I are going to be doing a little investigating."

* * *

The next morning, Tadashi was up before dawn. Carrying his shoes, he walked into the garage and over to the computer that was still on from last night's events. Baymax trailing behind him, trying to not make a sound, but it wasn't working. It was a good thing Aunt Cass was sleeping so heavily today.

Selecting the right file, Tadashi blew up the picture of the microbots to compare the microbot in his hand with the one on the screen. They complemented perfectly.

The tiny microbot started to spin around as it looked for others to join with. He quickly put it in a small container to keep it from jumping out of his hand. "If one microbot is searching for others, then does that mean more of them survived the fire?" he pondered.

"Baymax, can you scan this robot? Are there any fingerprints which aren't mine on it?"

The robot took the container gently from his creator and scanned the microbot. "I only detect your fingerprints. The intruders' fingerprints cannot be found."

"Did you scan him last night?" Tadashi asked expectantly. If he had it would be easier to track him down.

"No, I was ordered upstairs before I could perform my medical scan."

Tadashi clenched his fist in frustration. "Show me a recording of the intruder please?"

Baymax's abdomen lit up and a short clip played. The clip showed the intruder holding his foot and hopping in anger. The voice was male but disguised by a voice-altering device. It sounded like a cross between an anime character with the voice of Darth Vader.

Baymax gave his greeting and was about to do his scan when the intruder ordered him inside saying he didn't want care and he should concern himself with his patients inside the house.

Tadashi looked at the container with the microbot and came to a conclusion. "Come on Baymax, we're skipping school today. We have to find some answers about last night."


	3. Open Investigation

**Hi readers. I just want to let you know I update every Thursday, unless I say otherwise. So enjoy the rest of the story.**

* * *

Tadashi was lucky it was so early, otherwise, he would be crushed between pedestrians and traffic. He was already slowed down a bit by his injury from last night.

He stared down at the container in his hands. The little microbot was tilting in a few different directions as it searched for its buddies. "Hmm, could it be damaged? It should be pointing in one direction."

"Since we don't know the location where the microbot wants us to go, it is possible there are many routes we could take to reach the destination," Baymax reasoned.

He's right Tadashi thought to himself. We just need to keep following the microbot until we find a straight path to our destination. They came to a corner of a busy intersection.

Holding the container out, he moved it in a wide arch. The device rolled around a few times before it pointed northeast. Crossing the street, Tadashi was almost a full block north before he realized Baymax wasn't behind him.

Baymax was only halfway through the crosswalk. Sounds of traffic could be heard coming near. Dashing back down, Tadashi pulled Baymax safely on the sidewalk. "Baymax, you need to pick up the pace a little."

"I was not built to be fast. You wanted me to keep pace with my primary patient, which is a steady pace. With your injury, you should also keep a steady pace and not use your injured limb so much."

Tadashi slapped his forehead as he recalled the programming and design he used in making Baymax. "When we get back home, I'm going to make a few minor modifications. You need to be able to change your speed depending on the medical emergency. As for me, I'm not going to rest until I have answers."

Laughing a little at his own dumbness, the two started walking again. This time Tadashi kept pace with Baymax. Their robot compass took them up a few blocks before they went east.

They stopped at a train station. Commuters were starting to appear and in this crowd, they could get separated pretty easily. "Stay close Baymax. I need to check our compass again."

Tadashi checked the device once more. "It wants us to go southeast now. We should get across the station and then head south." Gripping Baymax's hands tightly, the duo quickly made their way through the station without bumping into someone.

They continued on their way taking a few blocks to the east before heading south. The buildings were slowly changing from well-maintained to old and peeling. The smell of the bay reached Tadashi's nose.

"If I'm smelling the bay, that means were near the warehouse district. Baymax, how's your olfactory sensor working?" Tadashi had installed an "inner" nose in Baymax's skeleton due to the fact smell was a key indicator when something was wrong with the body.

"My olfactory sensor is working perfectly. Besides the bay, I can smell mold and a faint trace of machine oil. I believe the little robot is trying to go towards the machine oil smell," Baymax pointed out as the microbot started to move in the direction the scent was coming from.

"Lead the way Baymax." Baymax shuffled through a few alleyways and a few stairwells before they arrived in front of an old warehouse. The building was well worn with paint peeling. There were a few broken windows and the lettering on the building was fading.

Tadashi could make out a K and T above to the door. There was also a faint picture of a bird of some kind, but he couldn't tell what it was. Judging by the amount of debris near the building it was obvious this warehouse had been abandoned years ago.

"You sure this is the location the microbot wanted to go?" he asked his companion. Baymax nodded and held out the container, showing the microbot pointing directly at the warehouse.

Pocketing the container Tadashi checked the door. It was still strong and he pulled out. The door gave a little but didn't open. He pulled a little harder and the door opened a little. Tadashi pulled again, this time with Baymax.

The door budged open enough for Tadashi to slip inside as he waited for Baymax to get through. It took a couple minutes for his friend to deflate and inflate once he was inside.

"This warehouse doesn't appear to be a safe place to be. There is mold, rusted parts, and I assume rodents that carry diseases. Should we not be going home?"

Tadashi shook his head. "We came to get answers Baymax. We're not leaving without getting some. Come on."

They walked through the warehouse looking around for any signs of life. There were several smaller areas in the warehouse which had some purpose in the past. Now they were mostly empty.

It wasn't until they walked past a third empty room when something shiny caught the duos attention. Curious, he went inside and was flabbergasted by what he saw. There were medical trays loaded with surgical tools and several syringes. A quick glance around revealed IVs, oxygen tanks, not to mention rows of pharmaceuticals meds. What was all this doing here?

They backed out of the room and then spotted something in the room next to it. There were several robotic parts inside bins. Parts to create a conveyor belt system. Not to mention crates with tech company labels on them.

Tadashi suddenly remembered the news broadcast from about a week or so back. "The police raided Good Lucky Alley to recover medical and tech supplies, but they only found three percent."

"It appears our intruder stored most of his stolen property here. For what purpose I can't be sure."

Something not good the college boy thought. Going back into the main warehouse area, Tadashi led the way. Near the back of the warehouse, he staggered onto something which made his blood run cold.

There were two huge assembly lines up and running. The lines were automatically designing and creating hundreds of microbots every minute. Tadashi had to blink when he looked to the end of the assembly line. There were rows of barrels filled with microbots and there were still lots of others yet to be filled.

"How…how is this even conceivable? It took weeks for Hiro just to make enough for the showcase. He only made about a thousand. These have to number up to the millions!" he said as he held his head in disbelief.

Was this why the intruder had come to the house last night? To get the schematics for mass producing the microbots. If so how had just two assembly lines cranked this amount out in only a few hours?!

Baymax tapped his creator's shoulder. "I'm detecting a human life form coming this way. Considering your injury, it would sensible to leave and call the authorities to handle this situation."

"Not just yet Baymax. Can you find a place we can hide to identify if this is the same intruder from last night? Once I'm sure this is the same individual, you can help me get out of here."

Baymax blinked uncertain about his creator's plan, but he had to obey him. He looked around and pointed to a small closet nearby. They would be able to see the person coming and could slip out unnoticed if they were quiet.

Crouching down, Tadashi watched as a man came from the back of the warehouse. Leaning a little closer to the door, he saw it was the same man still dressed the same as last night.

The man, (who Tadashi dubbed Yokai), was entering information into the main computer running the assembly lines. He was speaking to himself, but it was too soft for Tadashi to catch it.

Yokai finished typing in something. There was a grating sound and suddenly a third assembly line rose up through a secret panel in the floor. Holding out a hand, the hidden duo watched in disbelief as some of the microbots snaked across the ground, to the two rooms with the stolen property in them.

A few minutes later, a few crates were placed down near the start of the assembly line. The microbots turned into a crowbar opening the crates and started loading the tech on to the conveyor belt. Other pieces of tech were used to replace broken or obsolete parts from the assembly line.

With another wave of his hand, Yokai beckoned the microbots back to him. As they came back to him, he was presented with pain pills and a tube of some kind. He then went back the way he came.

Tadashi counted until five minutes past. "Baymax, help me out of here. We need to go get some help." Baymax picked up his patient and made his slow moving escape out the building. Neither of them noticed a small camera tracking them out the building.

Upon arriving home Aunt Cass was surprised to see Tadashi coming inside. "Shouldn't you be at school? You can't afford to miss so many days."

Tadashi placed his hands on his aunt's shoulders. "We had an intruder last night and I'm slightly injured. One day of rest is all I need before I go back tomorrow I promise."

Aunt Cass took a deep breath as a small smile appeared on her face. "Alright, just for today. Go back to bed and rest, please. Tomorrow I want to see you go off to school understood?"

Tadashi nodded and pretended to go up the stairs by walking heavily on the first two. When Aunt Cass was convinced he went upstairs, he gently tugged Baymax into the garage. "I need to start my modifications on your speed."

"Tadashi, Aunt Cass wanted you to rest. You need proper rest and to change your gauze to fresh ones if you wish to heal that cut," Baymax reminded his creator. He stepped closer to change the bandage. Also, why have you not contacted the police about the whereabouts of the intruder from last night?"

Tadashi propped his foot up on the table to let Baymax change his bandages. "Baymax, think about the fact that thief had millions of microbots, even though he only had gotten the blueprints yesterday. Remember the news report I mentioned? One of the crooks said black robots were after them."

Using his logic circuits Baymax arrived at the logical conclusion. "The evidence supports the theory the intruder stole the original microbots before creating more. Which means, he must have stolen the initial batch before the fire broke out."

Tadashi nodded his head. "Which means the fire was no accident. Whoever burned down the showcase hall murdered my brother. They also have the gall to use his legacy for stealing. I need to try to end this on my own terms. If I can't I promise I'll call the police."

"While I feel your attentions are inadvisable I will not interfere. What do you wish to do?"

Tadashi started texting his friends asking them to meet him after school. "Simple. We're going to do a stakeout."

* * *

Tadashi waited until he knew his friends would have a free period before video called them. "Hi everyone."

"Dude where have you been? Please tell us you're not ditching school again!"

"You better have a good reason for not coming to school today."

Tadashi rolled his eyes. "Does having someone break into my family's garage and stealing information related to Hiro's microbots count? What about tracking the intruder to his hideout with stolen supplies?"

Every one of his friends' jaws dropped and their eyes widened upon hearing that.

"Tadashi, what's going on here? Please explain."

Tadashi told them what happened and Baymax showed them the hazy video from last night. He also added a few bits of what they had seen at the warehouse.

All his friends blinked several times after the duo finished. Wasabi was the first to ask an obvious question. "Why would you put yourself in danger, especially since you had a serious cut that could have been infected in that abandoned warehouse?"

"Duh, because he wants to take this intruder down himself! He wants to prove he's the man of the house."

Go-Go pushed Fred out of the screen before demanding if that's what Tadashi was up to. He shook his head stating quite firmly that wasn't what he wanted.

"Then what do you want to do?"

Tadashi told him about his idea to do a stakeout freaking out his friends. They wanted to know why they should try to do a stakeout when they had a location for police.

"Yokai, that's what I'm calling the intruder, could have moved by now. I need to confirm for myself he's still there. Come on guys, help me please?"

Later that night, the gang picked up Tadashi and Baymax in Wasabi's car. "I can't believe you talked us into this. A stakeout at an abandoned warehouse where a creepy guy in a mask is storing stolen property? This is crazy," the driver of the car stated slightly hysterical.

Honey Lemon turned her head slightly to check on her crush. Baymax was inside his charger because there hadn't been any room for him to sit full size. "Tadashi, this isn't like you. You normally do the right thing or listen to people who know best. We should call the police."

Tadashi didn't respond. He just held on tighter to Baymax's charger. His mind had been made and he wouldn't change it.

"Personally, I think this is pretty awesome. I can't believe we're going on an actual villain stakeout. This is just like my favorite comic book hero, Captain Fancy!"

"Grow up Fred." Even Go-Go thought this was a bad idea and she loved taking risks. She was really hoping nothing would come of this.

The group finally arrived near the warehouse and hid the car behind some old shipping containers. Tadashi got out of the car and set the charger down so Baymax could get out.

After stretching his limbs, sort of anyway, Baymax was ready for stakeout duty. Everyone looked to Tadashi to know what they were supposed to do.

"Alright here's the plan. We split into three teams of two. Honey Lemon and Go-Go, you will keep an eye on the warehouse doors. Look for signs if the intruder is still there and let us know if he's coming out. Wasabi, you and Fred, will stay in the car watching the storage yard to see if Yokai is moving anything to another hiding spot."

"Where will we be?"

Tadashi wrapped an arm around Baymax and hugged him. "We're going to keep an eye out for any vehicles or boats are coming this way. There's a chance Yokai is just waiting for a buyer. Keep in touch with one another. If you see anything text."

The girls hurried towards the door entrance. Well, Go-Go hurried and Honey Lemon snapped a few photos before a glare from her friend made her pocket her phone.

"We need to find some cover, we don't want to be spotted. See anything that could help us?" Go-Go asked. Honey Lemon pointed to a couple of old barrels near the entrance. "On my count, we move. One, two, move!"

The girls dashed across the dilapidated parking lot, before ducking behind the barrels. They both took turns popping their heads up and checking to see if anyone left the building.

"How are we supposed to tell if a person's inside there if we can't get any closer?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Maybe we should look for a way in that's not the front door. Then we could look around inside to see if some one's still there." When her friend didn't respond Go-Goo started to snap at her but stopped.

Honey Lemon's face was ashen and she was too shocked to even speak. She pointed her finger at the door. Popping her head up, Go-Go looked at the entrance and her own face went ashen.

Out of the doors, millions of microbots were spilling out and forming into a delivery truck. As soon as they had formed the truck some of them formed into a human shape and started loading the stolen supplies into the truck. The microbots repeated this process twice.

Honey Lemon texted as fast as she could sending a message to the other two groups. _Lots of microbots exiting the warehouse. Forming cars and human like figures!_

_That's freaky, but Fred and I are witnessing something even freakier!_ Wasabi looked up from his phone and bit his lips trying to not to scream. Next, to him Fred was trying to keep himself from jumping in joy.

They had just been sitting in the car, Wasabi doing his best to ignore Fred's singing about how amazing this was. Then out of nowhere a swarm of microbots had crawled all over his car before they started to rearrange the shipping containers.

"This is great! We're actually witnessing a supervillain using his superior tech to make us feel helpless," Fred crooned.

"It's working because I feel helpless." He typed another text to the others. _Get us out of here!_

Tadashi looked up from his phone. "Baymax, we need to get back to our friends. Let's go."

Baymax pointed out to the bay. "Someone is coming. I'm detecting one male human coming this way. He is still too far away to scan."

Tadashi felt torn. They needed to get out of here before Yokai realized they were there. At the same time, he couldn't miss this chance for Baymax to scan the villain. "Baymax, hide and get the scan. As soon as you do get back to the car."

Tadashi raced as fast as he could back to the car. As he got closer he could see the girls trying to walk through the mass of microbots to reach the car. Wasabi looked ready to jump out of his skin. Even Fred was starting to look worried.

Fred accidentally hit a button on the dashboard and all the doors open. The girls took a running leap and jumped into the back seat. They quickly buckled up.

"Where's Baymax Dashi?" Honey Lemon asked in a concerned tone.

"Getting a scan of Yokai. He'll be here any minute." Looking out the window he could barely make out Yokai coming back to the dock. The microbots were carrying some sort of machinery behind him. If he squinted he could see the same faint emblem on the warehouse was also on the machine.

* * *

Yokai set the machine down before looking in their direction. Even though it was dark and the car lights weren't on, he knew they were there. His eyes narrowed when he saw the walking marshmallow heading towards the dark parking lot.

"Meddlesome kids. Time to show them why it doesn't pay to meddle in someone else's affairs," the supervillain said to himself. Raising his hand the microbots formed a fist. Thrusting his arm forward, the fist hit the robot full force and sent him flying.

The college students witnessed Baymax being flung through the air and landing on the car roof making a huge dent. Yokai came into full view on top of a tower of microbots. With a few flicks of his hands the microbots started forming into several large objects.

When they finished there were three large monster trucks at the ready. Yokai snapped his fingers and the microbot' monster trucks charged at the students.

Wasabi screamed, turned the engine on a drove out of there at the highest legal speed. The monster trucks came after them with Yokai following behind. He was going to enjoy this.

Inside the car, Wasabi was yelling at Tadashi while keeping his eyes on the road. "This is all your fault! You should have called the police, but no you had to convince us to do a stakeout! We're going to die because of you!"

Fred tugged hard on Wasabi's shirt sleeve. "We've got incoming boogies at three, six, and nine o'clock!" Indeed the monster trucks were coming from behind and to the right and left of them.

Wasabi slowed down a little prompting Go-Go to ask what he was doing. "I'm giving the monster trucks the right away. They're going to reach the intersection first."

Tadashi tapped the roof hard. "Baymax lean hard right now!" The robot did as asked. His shifting weight forced the car to the right into the path of the oncoming monster truck. "Now lean hard left!"

Baymax did that and the car barely managed to get passed the car. A quick look in the review mirror showed two monster trucks chasing them. "Where's the third one?" Honey Lemon asked nervously.

Coming down the hilly road was the third monster truck. Yokai was riding a wave of microbots with it. He used the microbots to pick up a FedEx truck and flung it at them.

The car slowed down and then swerved off the road onto the sidewalk to avoid a head on collision. Unfortunately, getting on the sidewalk put them in the path of one of the monster trucks. Wasabi spun around to get out of the way.

He managed to move out of the way for the most part, but his bumper did fall off and was smashed to pieces. Yokai sent a wave of microbots at the car as Wasabi looked for a way out.

"Go down the alleyway!" Fred suggested frantically.

"But it's a one way in the opposite direction we need to go!"

"Get us out of here before I fling you out of the car!" Go-Go shouted at her friend as she smacked her hands together, indicating how furious she was. Not wanting to get beat up, Wasabi went down the wrong way into the alley street.

Wasabi sped up a little, but still was going within the legal limit. He heard the microbots coming from behind him. The sky got darker as the microbots went over the rooftops searching for them.

"We need to get out of this alleyway. Quick! Everyone search for an alternate route!" Honey Lemon told them.

"It's a one-way street Honey Lemon. There's not going to be any side streets," Tadashi pointed out.

"Then we have to make an exit. Is there any way to get this car to crash through brick buildings?" Fred questioned.

"We're not crashing my car!"

The alleyway opened up to the regular streets again. The monster trucks were waiting to crush them as they came closer to exiting the alleyway. The wave behind and above them made going in another direction impossible.

Baymax had been scanning the alleyway and noticed a small street that dropped down to a lower level one. "If you turn left in one minute we can avoid a collision."

Wasabi heard him and did as he was told. The car took a deep dive from an old service road to a little forgotten road that ran under the hill streets. Soon they came upon a canal that rain into a large sewer pipe.

"Go through the pipe, we need to hide before Yokai finds us," Go-Go told the driver.

"Are you crazy? Do you know how many disgusting things are in the sewers?"

Tadashi looked behind them and saw the monster trucks pursuing after them. The microbots were rearranging the front bumper of the truck to create piercing harpoons. "Get us into that pipe now! Those trucks want to shishkabob us!"

Screaming in terror, Wasabi did as he was told. The harpoons barely missing them as he drove into the drain. The microbots were forced to stop because the monster trucks were too gigantic to get through.

"I think we're safe now," Honey Lemon told the group. "The microbots are no longer chasing us."

"That's because their master is right in front of us!" Fred squeaked loudly. Indeed, Yokai was coming at them, riding a surfing board construct on a tumulus wave.

Everyone was panicking, except Go-Go. She leaned over and put her hands over Wasabi's and twisted the wheel. The car went up the side of the wall at high speed.

Yokai came at them faster and faster ready to catch them when Go-Go sent the car into a spin, smashing through the wave and out the other end of the pipe.

"Stop backseat driving," Wasabi averred as he took back control of his car. "Don't you know the driver is in charge of the car, not the passenger?"

"I saved our lives!" Go-Go snapped as Honey Lemon pulled her back to her seat.

From the top of the car, Baymax spoke up. "We're on a collision course with a brick wall. At our current rate of speed, there is no time to brake."

Hearing this everyone stared out the car and saw the brick wall they were about to hit. "Everyone jump out!" Tadashi yelled as they all bailed out of the moving car. Baymax simply rolled off the vehicle just before the car hit the wall and exploded.

The college kids rolled onto the road, keeping themselves tucked in tightly. Thankfully they managed to all land on their backs, as a person should do if they were escaping a kidnapper from a moving car. Because there hadn't been anything soft to roll onto, the road scrapped them up badly.

Baymax toddled over and started to scan the whole group for injuries. To his surprise, the group of friends had luckily had avoided major injuries. Besides deep skin abrasions and minor bumps on their heads, they were fine.

"I need to treat your injuries right away, but I can't do that effectively with so many sources of infection."

"No problem." Fred reached into his pocket, delighted that his phone was still intact and called Heathcliff, the family butler. "Heathcliff, we need a ride home right now."

* * *

The group arrived at Frederickson Manor. The first time Fred had invited them over, they had been a little skeptical, not knowing what to expect. Go-Go honestly thought that Fred was homeless. They had all been gobsmacked when they found out Fred was the son of a billionaire.

The friends gathered in Fred's room so Baymax could attend to their injuries. Heathcliff even provided the bandages they would need.

Since Baymax was a robot, he didn't need to wash his hands for treating them. The college kids did as they each cleaned their hands in their own water bowls.

"It is important to clean the wound area and remove any debris from the area to prevent infection." Baymax carefully washed the wounds on their arms and shins. Then he sterilized the tweezers to finish the job.

"Can I get a separate set of tweezers? I don't want any cross contamination."

"The tweezers will be thoroughly sterilized before using on each patient, so there is no need to worry about cross contamination."

"Baymax, please be careful when you wrap the bandages to help stop the slight bleeding we have."

"Don't worry Tadashi, I will be careful." He sprayed their abrasions with an antibiotic cream and carefully wrapped the bandages around the wounds. "You should treat your injuries with antibiotic cream and change your bandages once every day. In about one week, you will be healed."

Everyone was relieved to hear that. All, but Tadashi could recover without anyone questioning about their bandages.

Honey Lemon addressed Tadashi. "Tadashi, after what happened, it's obvious we can't handle the situation. I know you want to do right by your brother, but we should let the police handled this."

Tadashi fingered the brim of his hat and sighed. "I know your right Honey Lemon, it's just hard to let this go. Yokai is responsible for my brother's death and is using Hiro's legacy to commit crimes. I want to be the one to capture him," he told sadly.

Fred gave him a sympathetic look. "We may not fully understand what you're going through, but unless you want to become a superhero, which by the way would be super cool, you can't stop Yokai by yourself."

"Enough already I know!" Tadashi snapped, startling his friends. He took a deep breath and apologized to them. "I know you're trying to comfort me. You're my friends and looking out for my safety. Right now though I feel like I'm being squeezed into a pair of pants that don't fit."

Go-Go understood what he meant. There were often times in her past where a lot of her friends tried to get her to fit a mold that wasn't for her. "Sorry, we'll back off a little. Do you feel up to going to the police now or do you want to wait a while?"

Tadashi slumped down on the couch. He thought about what Aunt Cass had told him last night about how she couldn't lose another member of their family. "We should go to the police now before Yokai's trail grows cold."

* * *

They all went together down to the police station. They approached the desk where the sergeant sat looking bored. "Hello, how can I help you today?" he asked in a bored tone.

Tadashi stepped forward gesturing for Baymax to follow him. "My name is Tadashi Hamada and I have information pertaining to the intrusion into my home yesterday night."

The desk sergeant raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you're the one who reported the guy who wore a kabuki mask to invade your home. You here to report the truth now?"

Tadashi was taken aback by this. "Baymax, can you show this officer the video you showed the other police officers?"

"Here is a replay of the video." His stomach lit up and the video of Baymax meeting the intruder played. "This footage verifies the intruder was wearing a kabuki mask."

His creator added the police were supposed to have sent a tech to check the computer out.

"I don't know much about the investigation, but I'm sure I would have heard some scuttlebutt if they found something."

Go-Go eyebrows narrowed. "Hey, we nearly got killed because we discovered where his hideout was. He was the one who stole all that tech and medical supplies a few weeks ago."

"Yeah, and he used those microbots to chase us all over the city!"

"He caused me to lose my precious car when it hit a brick wall. My poor baby."

"Officer, if you would just take a look at the other video Baymax recorded, your colleagues will have a lead to follow."

The desk sergeant held out his hand and told them to be quiet. "I understand you want to help, but you're made up stories and fake videos will not help us solve the case any quicker. In fact, it will take away the time our officers need to follow legitimate leads. I suggest you all go home. Good night."

The group had no choice, but to leave. All of them were shocked at how dismissive the police officer had been. San Fransokyo was a city of ever changing progressive technology. How could anyone not believe them about what they saw and experienced?

Tadashi was the angriest. The police weren't going to do anything to help find Yokai. "I think we need to have a talk tomorrow after class. If the police won't listen to us, we need to figure out who will."


	4. Suit Up

The next day at school was rough on the group. Last night's injuries combined with the disbelief of the police really shook them up. It really frustrated Tadashi. Why was everyone treating him as if he was crazy? Just because he was still grieving for the loss of his brother, didn't mean he was crazy!

Shelving those thoughts he focused on paying attention to the temporary robotics teacher, Professor Chase. The man was strictly by the book as he explained the importance of locomotion for robots.

"Locomotion is important in any robotic project you work on. The machine must be able to travel or move the parts needed to accomplish their tasks. For instance, a rover unit must be able to move across uneven terrains and a spherical robot, must be able to roll smoothly through a stable environment."

He pointed to the white board where images of different types of robots appeared. "These are some examples of different types of locomotion that have used in the past. Puma, was one of the earliest industrial robots. It moved using rollers.

The electrical self-balancing unicycle only one wheel. The unicycle is mostly used in recreation and travel. The robot must be able to fit in tiny places and handle the different environments so locomotion is the most important aspects.

Both snaking and climbing robots, such as the ACM-R5 snake robot and the Capuchin, need to mimic the ability of animals in how they move. By studying the way animals move, robots can become more advanced."

Maybe this could help me figure out how to increase Baymax's speed. He needs to move a little faster if he's to help people Tadashi thought. He vaguely copied down notes as the teacher gave them their homework.

He left class and headed to the quad. He needed some fresh air desperately. Sitting down on a bench he took a few deep breaths. "Little brother, what you do next if I died?"

Hearing the sound of gum popping, he raised his head. Go-Go and the others had joined him around the bench. He gave them a small smile and they did the same. "Hey Dashi where's Baymax?"

"I told him to stay home. After what happened last night, he needed a long recharge period," he replied. He noticed they were still staring at him. "I'm find gang. I just, I'm not happy about last night."

"You could go back and demand to talk to the officer in charge of the investigation. Surely he wouldn't dismiss you like the desk sergeant did," Honey Lemon suggested.

"Even the officer was skeptical and that was with video and eye witness testimony."

Wasabi expressed his disbelief not understanding how law enforcement could be reluctant to listen to them or truly investigate the case. Fred responded by saying a lot of police didn't care anymore about the people they were supposed to protect. Most of them wanted to abuse their power.

"Fred has a point Wasabi. I've seen it before. I'm not saying every police officer is like that. Hey Fred, your parents donate too many different charities right? Are they close with any officers?"

"Not that I'm aware. I'm more involved in the charities related to kids then the political ones. Maybe Heathcliff might know?"

"Even if he does, why would they believe a word I have to say? Everyone seems to believe I'm making up stories to deal with the grief of losing Hiro. Yes, I'm grieving, but I would never make up something like this."

"We know that Dashi. Do you think the fire marshal would listen to you?"

"Marshal Punch was certain nothing survived the fire. Again, he's another authority figure who would think I'm making stuff up to deal with my grief. I just don't know what to do gang."

None of them knew what to do. Fred said they could come over to his house. With his family's fortune and connections, maybe they could find someone to help them. At the very least, he could contact his parents. They were vacationing on the family island in the Caribbean's, but were easy to reach by satellite feed.

Tadashi agreed to swing by with Baymax after he checked in with his Aunt Cass. When he had showed up with more bandages she had become dreadfully upset. She had lectured him once again about how she couldn't handle it if he died too and how upset she was that he had snuck out.

He couldn't let his aunt suffer another breakdown. It was one thing to endanger his health. It was something else entirely if he caused his aunt health to deteriorate.

* * *

When he arrived at the Lucky Cat Café, he was surprised to see Baymax helping Aunt Cass by serving the food. While he served he was talking about the health benefits of the food served.

"Gluten free muffins are much healthier for your diet. Along with it being healthier you can avoid triggering a wheat allergy or developing celiac disease. Do you wish to learn more about healthy eating habits?"

"Baymax over here please. Aunt Cass can I talk to you for a second?" Tadashi asked as he pushed both of them into the residential area.

"Tadashi, I hope you didn't mind me asking Baymax to help me out today. He was done charging an hour ago and I needed a bit of help."

"Indeed. Assisting Aunt Cass has helped my social interaction with people. I have learned several new behavior cues."

Tadashi assured his aunt it was fine to ask Baymax for help when she needed it. "I wanted to let you know I'm heading over to Fred's for a study group. If Baymax is free, I was hoping he could join me."

Aunt Cass still needed some help so Baymax agreed to stay. Giving her a quick hug, Tadashi left for Fred's house.

* * *

In the meantime, in an abandoned factory, Yokai was busy with repairing the part of the machine he had recovered from the bay. After being in the water for a few years, it needed a lot of new parts if it was to function correctly.

So far, his examination revealed problems with the stability of the frame, along with serious corrosion inside. Sections had been burned out which meant the magnetic confinement unit was shot. It would be too dangerous to attempt reintegrate this part with the other two, unless that MCU was fixed.

He mentally reviewed the inventory or tech he had stolen. There was enough to do the repairs and have a surplus if he needed to fix it again. He was cautious considering he might only have one chance to use this.

"Hmm, the wiring has to be redone completely and the new components have to be both compatible and upgraded from the original design. I want this to be as stable as possible. If it's not, then my plans will fail!" Yokai said to himself as he directed the microbots to finish gutting the machinery.

The microbots were moving sluggishly today. They should have already finished gutting the machinery, but they were only half done. His orders had been clear and precise. There was no reason they should be running at half speed. Yokai frowned unhappily.

He left the main factory floor and went into an office room. He had converted it to a small treatment/recovery room. Tools and medical supplies on one side of the room and an elaborate medical bay on the other. He had everything he needed to ensure his vengeance would be successful.

Picking out the supplies he needed, Yokai walked into the bay and started setting up the IVs with powerful drugs and turning on an oxygen tank. After a few deep breaths, he started talking out loud.

"I need to increase the speed of the microbots. They're not responding as well as I would like. It would help greatly if I figured out way to boost brain power. But how do I do that?"

Yokai tried to recall everything he had learned about biology while pairing it up with robotics. After a few minutes a solution came to him. If he used a combination of the medicine called, Ambien, along with electrostimulation, the brain should be about twenty percent more active.

I'll need to perform a few tests before I use it. Without the right combination there surely will be brain damage. I'll get to that in a little bit. I need to get started on repairing the piece of the machine I have, while locating the second part.

After finishing up in the treatment room, he headed back to the main floor. He was pleased to see the microbots had picked up the pace. They had finished their task and now it was time to restore the tech to good as new.

"Replace the wiring with the new fiber optic cables. I also want to new circuits to increase the efficiency of the machine. Test every magnetic confinement unit to make sure it doesn't fail. Fix the paneling after that's all done," Yokai called out as he gestured what he wanted the tiny robots to do.

* * *

He walked over to his sound board and started doing some mathematical calculations of where the second piece of the machinery he needed would be hiding. The machine he was recreating had three parts which had been scattered around the city.

"Let's see, if I take in account the distance between the original site and the safe distance it could be stored in the city without reacting to the other pieces, along with the types of vehicles used to transport it and those capable of hiding it, then take in account of the years of erosion, I should be able to pinpoint the location of the next piece."

Yokai used a computer to run his calculations, while he studied some newspaper articles, he had saved. He looked at articles about construction work or pipes being replaced.

Once his calculations were finished, he did a grid search of the city looking to find a place that matched up with any of the articles he had found. One by one he eliminated construction areas that were too small or not deep enough to bury a part of the machine he needed.

Refining his calculations one more time, he found what he was looking for. He growled as he realized where the piece had been buried. "It just had to be buried next to the kid's under tons of asphalt, concrete, and large pipes."

It was as if fate was mocking him. He was being drawn back once more to a place he rather shun. "On the bright side, this might be the opportunity to get my message across. They want to keep interfering, then they'll just have to face the consequences of their actions."

If he was going to pull this off, Yokai needed all the advantages available to him. If he didn't get the second piece there was no reason to go after the third. It was time to start experimenting.

Making sure the microbots were still repairing the piece of the machine he had collected, he headed back up to the medical room. In there he had a small lab space where he could work.

Taking a couple of blood samples, he studied it under the high powered microscope. He added a tiny pinch of the active ingredients of Ambien, and studied the interaction in the sample. So far there was no negative reaction.

Slowly he increased the dose. The stronger the dose, the more positive reaction. When he added 11mgs only then did he start to see signs of the blood cells starting to interact in a negative way.

"So, I should use no more than 10mgs. Based on weight, gender, and medical condition, the best dosage would be 8mgs. These blood tests are encouraging. Hopefully further testing will prove this is an effective treatment."

The next step was to see if and how the medicine would respond to electrostimulation. Lacking brain samples to use for testing, he decided to use other tissue samples, before using the electrode pads.

Using a tiny jolt, he watched through the microscope of how the blood cells start to move faster when stimulate. According to recent medical journals he had read a few weeks ago, EBS could increase blow flow and be targeted to one specific area to prevent damage.

On the other hand. Some reports showed there was inconsistencies between test subjects, depending on gender an environmental factors. Which meant, if was to combine the two treatments together, he need the right combination of medicine and electrical jolts.

After another two hours of experimentation, Yokai was patiently waiting to review the PET scans taken during the administration of the treatment. The areas of the brain, which he wanted to be stimulated were actively responding to the treatment.

"No side effects at all. Also, no signs of brain damage. A protective suit with built in stimulation and drug administration would be the best way to give treatment without causing harm," Yokai muttered to himself as he finished looking at the scans.

He still had a few hours before midnight. It would be the perfect time to strike. Not only would he be able to recover the second piece with little trouble, his victims would be sound asleep, leaving them vulnerable to his attack.

* * *

It was nearly midnight as Heathcliff was driving everyone home. The last few hours had been exhausting. Fred had called everyone on his parents contact list asking for help to get the police to follow up their lead, but most of them thought Fred was prank calling them because of his obsession with his comic book collection.

So the others each took turns calling contacts. Each had met their own frustrations on the phone. Go-Go lost her patience waiting on hold for a long time to talk to government officials. It resulted in her yelling at a few for keeping her on hold and then the call would be disconnected.

Wasabi's problem was he started stammering when anyone he talked to started to intimidate him. His voice would get very squeaky and he would hurriedly say goodbye.

Honey Lemon's cheerful demeanor did work. She actually managed to have a polite conversation with some of directors from different charity groups. However, none of them had enough power to persuade the police to take the group seriously.

Tadashi had some luck getting people interested in what he had to say. He was hopeful until the people he contacted wanted to know if he was interesting in being interviewed for a news article. He hung up on those.

Fred had tried to get in touch with his parents with no luck. They were on a three day cruise between the islands they owned and wouldn't be able to get back to their son for a few days.

Tadashi was feeling depressed. He had placed all his hopes on someone listening to them and changing the police's minds. Instead, they had been ignored or almost used to help other people.

"I can't believe how difficult this is. It's really hard to convince people that you're telling the truth. I'll never get justice for Hiro at this rate." Tadashi slouched in his seat and muttered it would take an act of God to convince someone he was telling the truth.

Suddenly the road began to quake, causing the limo to lose traction and slide into a dumpster. Cracks began to form in the road as some of the buildings bottom floors rattled.

San Fransokyo was known for earthquakes. The Great Catastrophe of 1906 had nearly destroyed the entire city because of an earthquake. Yet, this earthquake was unusual.

It didn't appear to be natural. A natural epicenter would have the earthquake growing outwards, but this quake seemed to be keeping to the epicenter. Only a bit of the quake was growing outwards.

"It's a man-made earthquake!" Fred said, hugely familiar with them because of his comic collection. "Yokai must be up to something big!"

"Normally I wouldn't agree with Fred, but all this ahhhh light shaking has convinced me ahhh!" Wasabi responded.

"It's coming from the direction of my home. Aunt Cass is in danger!" Tadashi shouted as he felt an adrenaline rush. Despite the danger, he started running down the street in the direction of the café.

* * *

Mochi had been sleeping on Cass's bed, when he felt something unnerving. He woke up and headed to the window, his fur standing on ends as he felt a disaster approach.

Staring out the window, he let out a series of hisses as he saw the bad human arriving on a wave of black. He snarled as those black things, play items his human's littlest nephew had made, started to crawl up the house briskly.

Mochi jumped back on the bed and frantically started meowing trying to get his person to wake up. Tonight was one of those nights she was too exhausted to be woken up by anything.

Mochi kneaded her, poked her head with his paw, and even licked her, but she continued to sleep. The windows were now pitch black and the cat was afraid. He sniffed the air, the big nephew wasn't here, but that nice big metal man was.

The calico male skidded out of his person's room and jumped up the stairs to the boys' bedroom. He looked frantically for signs of the metal man, but he wasn't here. Mochi was ready to head back down when he caught a glimpse of something splotchy.

Cats did have color vision. While the strongest colors they could see were blues and grays, they did see other colors, only they were very saturated and the hues weren't very bright. This meant while Mochi couldn't see that the splotchy item was red, he could tell that the object was related to the metal man.

The cat started to scratch the item and meowing as loud as possible. He kept whining and scratching until he saw something flashing on the item. He stepped back as he watched the metal man appear before his eyes.

"Hello, I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare…" Baymax stopped just noticing there was no human nearby. He heard an insistent meowing and saw Mochi sitting there screeching. "Hello Mochi, I am not a personal vet."

Mochi just flicked his tail and headed to the window. Sensing the cat was trying to show him something, he went over the window and saw the microbots crawling up the windows as they finished covering the building. "Oh no."

Cass was sleeping peacefully, dreaming of meeting famous chefs from all around the world, when she felt a strange sensation between her legs. Something that was vaguely familiar from when she was a tiny girl.

She woke up with a start and threw her covers off. There were no spots on the bedding, just the bottom part of her pajamas. Cuddling Mochi in one hand and an empty glass of water in the other, was Baymax. "Good, you're awake."

"Baymax, what do you think you're doing?" Aunt Cass asked angrily.

"Evacuating you from forthcoming danger in an unstable building," He replied. He pointed to her windows. Aunt Cass only saw microbots pushing on the glass for a second, before they crashed through sending the glass flying.

Aunt Cass quickly covered up her face with her hands. Small slivers of glass entrenched in her palms. She let out a painful howl as Baymax pull her to the ground as more of the microbots started pouring through every door and window. Add the intense shaking coming from outside, it was one home Great Catastrophe!

Baymax assessed the situation. While his patient was injured, it was imperative to get out of the danger zone before treating them. "You are injured. We must leave this place now. Can you hold the hairy baby tightly?"

"Yes, get us out of here Baymax!" Aunt Cass screamed as she pulled Mochi into her arms and hugged him tightly. The cat dug his claws into her pajamas as far as he could without shredding her skin.

The microbots were tossing the bedroom apart. Everything in the closet was ripped to shreds and the dresser was flipped over. The tiny machines were drilling into the walls forming holes.

Keeping his patients under his big belly Baymax had them crawl under him as pieces of drywall fell from the ceiling. Upon entering the living room, there was even more damage here. Appliances had been broken and the outlets were burning. Her small kitchen area was a disaster.

As if sensing her presences, a wave of microbots used the stairway down like a chute, pouring more and more of them to block her escape. Mochi hissed and batted a few microbots away as his person was bombarded by them.

Unfortunately, Mochi was one cat against a million tiny microbots, who could take any shape they wanted. Aunt Cass yelped as she got hit in the arms and face. "Baymax help!"

Wrapping himself entirely around Aunt Cass, the medical robot rolled down the stairs and bowled out of the café. He uncurled to let Aunt Cass and Mochi get out only for them to clinger tighter to him.

* * *

In the middle of the four way stop, Yokai had created a giant drilling platform. It was currently making its way through the sewer pipes as it searched deeper into the crust to find what he was looking for.

The gang ran towards the café and stopped in sheer disbelief. Yokai noticed them and started spinning his hand. Some of the microbots broke away from the drill and formed a tornado!

He sent the tornado straight at the group. They dodged it when it first past them. Then it came back a second time and it picked up Fred, who started to scream.

"If I wasn't afraid of dying this would be cool! Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" Fred was being bounced around hitting the sides of the man-made tornado. His clothes were starting to tear apart.

"Hold on Freddy, we'll save you!" Honey Lemon shouted anxiously. "Um how do we save him?" she asked in a loud voice over the roaring wind.

"We have to get the neural transmitter from Yokai! It's got to be in his mask! No transmitter, no microbot' storm!" Tadashi responded. He was about to suggest a plan when he saw the trouble his aunt and Baymax were in.

"AUNT CASS! BAYMAX!"

The two of them turned towards Tadashi's voice. Aunt Cass eyes were wide with fear as she clutched tightly to Mochi. Baymax started to get up to carry the woman to safety.

Yokai saw this out of the corner of his eyes. He took his attention off the drill for a second and gestured with hands towards the members of Tadashi's family.

In seconds, the three of them in restraints hampering their movements. The restraints squeezed them tightly making it problematic to breathe for the human and the cat. The pressure on Baymax was straining his skeleton.

Tadashi ran towards his family only to be picked up by the tornado that was still spinning around the streets. His hat flew off his head and soared away.

He was flailing around when his friends were scooped up in the storm as well. All of them were shrieking and being banged up considerably. They were completely helpless.

Returning his attention to his drill, Yokai increased the speed of the drill. With all the commotion happening the police would be here any minute. He was sure he could beat them without any trouble.

The reason he didn't want the police around was because it would cause problems later in his scheme. If he removed the obstacles beforehand, then those problems wouldn't pop up.

The best way to deal with the problem, was to prevent them for reaching him in the first place. Underneath the mask, he simpered. Oh, tonight he was on a roll or should he say _sinkhole_

Knowing he only had one shot at this, considering he his mental focus was stretched between three different ideas, he commanded a hundred microbots to create sinkholes in all four directions to keep the police from getting any closer.

As the cop cars game closer they could make out two large black things in the horizon. They drove a little faster to get a good look only for the cars to fall into the sinkholes and get stuck in the muddy ground. It was a scramble as they tried to get out of their cars.

Satisfied the police wouldn't be getting here anytime soon, he returned his attention back to drilling through the ground below him. He had made it through the sewer pipe and had now reached the crust.

The microbots kept going and going. Making their way through dirt and rock layers. When he finally drilled through 21120 feet of dirt, which converted into four miles, he finally struck something metal.

"Yes, need to get a visual on this." He had stolen ground penetrating radar equipment knowing it would be helpful is his search. The device sent out several pings and Yokai was able to see the exact position of piece he needed.

The tornado of microbots broke apart. The five humans came crashing down towards the street. Lucky or unlucky, all the shaking had rolled a dumpster full of garbage down the sidewalk. They all landed in there with various states of conciseness.

The restraints also broke and Aunt Cass and Mochi could finally breathe properly. Baymax checked to make sure his skeleton was in stable condition before reflating. He had a lot of patients to tend to.

The villain ignored them as he used the tiny robots to create a giant crescent shape hole in the middle of the street. He thrust his hands down and out. The ground shook and the glass from the nearby buildings cracked.

The second piece of the machine was pulled out of the ground and into the air. It appeared to be held up by a million ants, even more of them were coming out of the hole with tiny pieces of metal, lights, and some wires, on their backs.

"Yes! The piece is mine! One more and I'll be able to assemble the machine."

"Hey!"

Yokai turned his head as he saw Tadashi trying to drag himself closer. Even as hurt as he was, the college student refused to pass out. No doubt about it, the Hamada boy had spirit.

Crossing his arms the supervillain stared down at Tadashi. "Haven't you learn by now to stay down? Keep pursuing me and _I will kill you!"_

Determinedly, Tadashi stood up. Despite the pain he was in, he wouldn't back down. "I won't stay down! Those microbots are my little brother's legacy and I will _not_ tolerate you using them to commit crimes!"

"What are you going to do about it? These robots are mine now and I will use them as I see fit! Your brother's legacy will help me complete my _legacy_. Last chance to back off."

Tadashi took one step forward, ignoring the yells from his friends to come back.

"Death it is then." The microbots formed into pointy tentacles, all aimed to stab the college kid to death when a blinding light came down upon the two of them.

"THIS IS THE POLICE. STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND LIE DOWN IN SURRENDER. YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO COMPLY!"

Clearly enraged now, Yokai turned his pointy tentacles towards the police helicopter and fired. The helicopter managed to avoid all of them, but three of them impaled the helicopter's rotors. The copter spun out of control in the sky.

None of the group saw where the helicopter crash landed. What they did witness was Yokai taking off into the night with his prize. Tadashi tried to chase after them, but failed.

* * *

It took around two hours for the police and EMTs to find a safe route to reach the Lucky Cat Café. The group was inside as the EMTs checked to make sure Baymax had attend the injured correctly.

Aunt Cass was covered in a blanket as the EMT checked to make sure they last of the glass had been removed from her hands. "Looks like your robot did a good job. There's no glass left in your hands. I'm going to try to reduce your bruises further, alright?"

Aunt Cass nodded numbly. "How are my nephew and his friends are doing? Did they sustain any significant injuries?" She tried to turn around to see for herself only for the EMT to gently turn her back towards her.

"Let's focus on you first. Afterwards you can see your nephew."

The college kids had several cuts and bumps on their bodies. The man made tornado had shredded their bandages around their abrasions, which had to cleaned and disinfect again.

Tadashi's foot injury had grown a little bit. He need a few stitches to close the cut and his foot was completely bandaged now. "Try to stay off your foot. The ankle needs time to heal. You're likely to slow down the recovery time if you keep using it."

Tadashi nodded before glaring at the police. He recognized two of the officers. One was the desk sergeant and the other was the one who had questioned him after Yokai had intruded into his home. "Do you believe me now?"

The first officer cleared his throat. "We did believe you when you said there was an intruder. We've been searching our criminal database to find someone who matched your description."

"Really? Because when I came to the station last night to report a lead, I was ignored and told I was a liar by him!" Tadashi pointed to the desk sergeant, who looked a little sheepish.

"I apologize Mr. Hamada. Your story sounded a little farfetched to be true."

"Well thanks to your ignorance, that criminal was able to come here and attack us and destroy property. He got away with something and now no one knows where he is," Go-Go retorted sarcastically.

"Young lady, I would adjust your attitude when speaking to the authorities in the future." He assured Tadashi and Aunt Cass they would make this case their number one priority.

The two humans and the cat looked doubtful of this. Even Baymax looked puzzled by that statement. It was clear they didn't have any faith in the justice system.

As soon as they're gone, I'm going to take Fred up on his offer. If I'm to get justice for Hiro, then its time I suit up and be a superhero.


	5. Small Surprises

After getting several hours of rest and having something to eat, Yokai was ready to get to work on creating the protective suit. Considering how last night went, the sooner he finished the project the sooner he could collect the third part of the machine.

"The police are inept and powerless against me and the microbots. Still, it would be difficult to capture my victim with heightened awareness about me. This suit will be my greatest work to date."

After gathering the supplies and getting the measurements worked out, he started on creating the ultimate robotic suit. With it, no one could stop him!

First, he would need to select the right material. If he built an exoskeleton suit, it would be direct contact with the skin. While protective, it would hinder movement.

The other choice was to work with active clothing wear. That was a cotton material containing sensors made of a flexible polymer and threadlike strands of a shape-memory alloy that returns to a coiled shape when heated, causing the fabric to move.

It would allow more comfort and at the same time allow better movement. The problem was it wouldn't be as protective as armor. Also, if damaged, active clothing wouldn't function properly. What he needed was a combination of the two to make this work.

Using standard sewing techniques, Yokai started sewing the fabric together. He was lucky his wife had taught him how to do this, back when they would make outfits for their child to enjoy.

It would have been faster if the microbots could sew this up. This situation a delicate human touch needed to be used. The pattern needed to be precise and the sewing needed a steady hand. Sometimes a human was better at certain tasks than robots.

It took a long time to finish sewing the suit, about four hours. He hadn't sewn something in many years and he needed to be careful of the sensors in the fabric. He smiled at the completed body stocking.

The fit was perfect. The fabric moved in the right way. The sensors allowed for both actuation and sensing. The elasticities of the fabric allowed a greater range of motion, which would work well with a lightweight exosuit

Crafting an exoskeleton suit would take up even more time. It wasn't something he could just through together. To work efficiently he would have to overcome limits engineers had been dealing with in the past decade.

It was important to have the right power source. There were currently few power sources of sufficient energy density to sustain a full-body powered exoskeleton for more than a few hours.

Non-rechargeable primary cells tend to have more energy density and store it longer than rechargeable secondary cells, but then replacement cells must be transported into the field for use when the primary cells are depleted, of which may be a special and uncommon type.

Rechargeable cells can be reused but may require transporting a charging system into the field, which either must recharge rapidly or the depleted cells need to be able to be swapped out in the field, to be replaced with cells that have been slowly charging.

Further, chemical reactions can occur between substances used in rechargeable batteries, such as lithium, with atmospheric oxygen in the event of a battery being damaged, resulting in fire or explosion.

Seeing the trouble with a full exoskeleton, Yokai decided to create smaller armor like exoskeletons. These parts would protect his extremities, the chest and back, along with the head. He could design and use a 3D printer to create the parts in a couple of hours. For a power source, he could use stored solar power from the panels on the roof of his new hideout.

With one problem solved, there was another that needed to be taken care of. The armors actuators had to move in time with the physical body. If they didn't move properly the actual body could suffer injury.

Standard hydraulic cylinders are powerful and capable of being precise, but they are also heavy due to the fluid-filled hoses and actuator cylinders, and the fluid has the potential to leak onto the user. Pneumatics are generally too unpredictable for precise movement since the compressed gas is springy, and the length of travel will vary with the gas compression and the reactive forces pushing against the actuator.

Pressurized hydraulic fluid leaks can be dangerous to humans. A jet squirting from a pinhole leak can penetrate the skin at pressures as low as 100 PSI / 6.9 bar. If the injected fluid is not surgically removed, gangrene and poisoning can occur.

The best choice was for the armor parts was to use servo motors. The servomotors utilized high-gauss permanent magnets and step-down gearing to provide high torque and responsive movement in a small package.

The electrically powered servomotors had the ability to hold steady with the physical body. That meant the power supply wouldn't use much power. This conservator method would allow the power supply to last longer.

Because the armor wouldn't be joined together, he used a simple robotic design to help keep the joints working properly. The real challenge would be the power control

Too much power and there was a chance the armor would fly right off the body. Too little power and the body would lag behind the armors speedy movements. He needed to strike the right balance of power and speed to ensure safety when worn.

The last task he had to deal with was how to enhance the abilities of both the body stalking and armor while working together. Yokai understood it would take more than standard robotics to achieve this goal. Perhaps he needed to take another look into human biology to figure out what to do next.

"Hmm, I wonder? What was that article I read about a month ago? Oh yes, the advances in a robotic prosthesis for amputees. Thanks to military grants, they have advanced considerably to the point, where some of the devices work by a person's own mind. A few models can even restore the sense of touch in the brain to the robotic limb."

The amount of time and money that went into making these new advances meant most people could never afford them. Unless you happen to have connections. In his old life, he had been consulted a few times about these devices and earned a large fee.

Enough money to buy the right materials and fabricate them here. These mini prostheses will definitely enhance the armor and body stalking. No one can stop me from getting the third piece!

* * *

At the Frederickson Mansion, the gang had come to a consensus. The only way to stop Yokai and bring him to justice, while getting some payback for all their injuries, was to nab the villain themselves.

However, before diving into the world of superheroes, they needed to do some research in order to figure out who Yokai really was and how to snare him. With only a few clues to go on, it would be a problematic case.

In Freddy's room, they laid out their few clues on the table. They had a microbot, a drawing of the symbol they had seen, some photos from the showcase hall, and a list of all the places Yokai had hit. They also had notes on everything they had observed about this mysterious villain.

"So here's what we know so far. Yokai was at the showcase hall and set the fire to obtain the microbots," Tadashi started off pointing the photos. "He came to my house to obtain the blueprints for the microbots so he could make more. Why did he do that?"

"Maybe the microbots were damaged by the fire?" Honey Lemon suggested.

"I don't think so. Hiro made those things to withstand a lot of damage when being used," Go-Go pointed out.

"They were only at the prototype stage Go-Go. We don't know for sure how durable Hiro made them," Wasabi insisted. He winced at seeing Tadashi frowning. "Sorry, Tadashi."

Tadashi took a deep breath. "It's okay Wasabi. I know you didn't mean for it to sound harsh. My brother was a genius, but you're right, we don't know how durable the microbots were."

"That could be why Yokai came to your house. If he wanted to enhance the microbots, he would probably need the blueprints and all that tech he swiped could have been for the enhancements," Fred offered as an explanation.

Then was did he need the medical supplies for? "Baymax, when you scanned Yokai, did you detect any severe injuries?"

"The individual known as Yokai clothing had sensors in it, which disrupted my scanner's abilities. I have a basic scan of him, but I couldn't tell you what injuries he has suffered from," Baymax explained sadly.

With this information, Fred's theory was the only one they had to go on. Tadashi held up the sketch of the symbol. "Did any of you figure out what this symbol stands for?"

That was negative on their part. Honey Lemon had reached out to her artist friends to see if any of them might know, but it wasn't a sign they had seen before. Go-Go's checked all the tattoo parlors to see if they could figure out what it meant.

Wasabi had run an extensive search online and found nothing. None of the books Tadashi and Baymax read could identify it. Fred had once again contacted all his parents' friends and none of them knew a company that used that logo.

"What if we're looking at this backward? Instead of trying to find out what the symbol means, maybe we can figure out who created it by looking at all the places we've seen it," Honey Lemon suggested.

She looked at her phone and brought up all the pictures she had taken during the past few days. Going through them, she saw the symbol on the machine, but there was one shot, she hadn't realized the symbol was captured.

"The warehouse had this symbol painted on it. Also the faint logo of a k and t. That's the Krei Tech logo! Krei's company must own the warehouse."

"So that means the tech Yokai has been stealing must have been constructed in that warehouse. That would explain the assembly lines and the different rooms. The extra rooms were probably for storage or offices," Wasabi responded.

"Then that symbol would be related to a private project the public wasn't supposed to know about. But why would they scatter pieces of it? Why not destroy it instead?"

Go-Go suggested that if Krei Tech had been involved in a private project and something went wrong, then they might store the pieces somewhere until they figured out how to fix that machine Yokai was trying to recreate.

"We have a theory on what Yokai is stealing and his plans for it. What we need now is to figure out a suspect and where he'll strike next. "

Fred pointed out they did have a suspect. Allister Krei, the CEO, and founder of Krei. He had the means, opportunity, and a motive. He had bragged about his top mind scientists when he was at the showcase. He also had wanted Hiro's microbots only to be thwarted by Hiro saying no to him.

There was a reason businessmen were cast in a dark light in most forms of entertainments. They were ruthless, terrifying, and lastly greedy. The worst of the worst were always high powered executives of big corporations. They had the most to gain and lose if something didn't go their way.

Wasabi asked Fred why the man would be stealing technology when he could just use the resources of his own company.

"Cover-up. Don't you see, it's brilliant! If he steals the technology, he doesn't have to spend time or money covering it up. He would also know where he could safely hide the loot because of his property records."

"Fred does have a point. Our theory tracks well with Krei and he was there that night. It's at least worth investigating Dashi," Go-Go stated as she snapped her gum.

"Alright, we'll investigate. This time, we won't be getting injured. Hiro left behind one other project for the world. Project Super."

* * *

Returning to Tadashi's home, he took them into the garage. He was happy to see the police hadn't taken Hiro's computer yet for examining. After last night's events, the computer files seemed to have slipped their minds.

The gang looked over the armor designs Hiro had come up with. Fred whistled loudly impressed by how thought out these were down to the smallest detail. "Why didn't he enter these into the showcase? These designs are so awesome!"

Tadashi explained Hiro's reasons for not entering them. "Hiro might not have used these for the showcase, but that doesn't mean we can't use them now to bring his killer to justice."

Go-Go looked at the design schematics closer. "These designs are very complex. I'm an engineering major and I don't know if I could even come up with this, let alone build one of these suits."

Honey Lemon patted Go-Go's shoulder. "If anyone can help build this superhero armor it's you Go-Go."

Wasabi was looking over the designs for the suits noting some of the material they needed to use weren't things you could pick up in a nearby store. Some of these materials were made to order for technology companies or military institution. How are were they supposed to get it?

Writing down a detailed list, he handed it to Fred. "Do you think you could purchase these items for us and get them expressed delivered?"

Fred looked down at the list. His expression turned sad. "No can do my friend. For purchases such as this, I need approval from one or both my parents. They're still on that cruise remember?"

Everyone frowned wondering what to do next. While it was possible to redesign the superhero armor, there was no way Go-Go could do them all in a short amount of time.

Honey Lemon tapped her chin and then whispered something to Tadashi. A puzzled expression appeared on his face. He looked around thoughtfully before whispering something back to her.

Smiling, Honey Lemon straightened up. "Dashi, you will stay here and start to make the superhero suits. Meanwhile, Baymax and I will get the missing material we need to finish the suits. Wasabi, Go-Go, and Freddie, can you go back to the school and pick up our projects and bring them back here?

Everyone nodded and went about their tasks. By working together they could finish building their superhero suits and go on the offensive against Yokai.

Baymax and Honey Lemon arrived at the Technology Salvage Yard. In San Fransokyo, advances in technology happened almost monthly or certain technology didn't work as well as hoped. In the salvage yard, anyone was free to take what they wanted and repurpose it.

"Come on Baymax. Hiro was going to come here to get the material he needed to repurpose. If they're on this list, then they have to be in here somewhere."

"Your endorphin levels have risen. Your heart rate increased for five seconds. What are these signs of?"

"Determination and excitement. Let's get started Baymax. First on the list is modacrylic material to line Freddy's super suit to protect him from the fire his suit produces."

The two of them walked around until they came to a pile of different materials used in transportation vehicles. Some of the material also came from test uniforms used by pilots and drivers.

Honey Lemon started going through the pile and sorting them. Baymax helped by scanning the material for its chemical makeup. Most of the fabric they found was made of moquette and polypropylene.

Baymax picked up a large piece of discarded fibers. He scanned it and blinked. "Honey Lemon, I have found the modacrylic. My scan shows it's in perfect condition."

Honey Lemon clapped her hands in glee. "You're the best Baymax! Now on to item two on our list, are optical cavity mirrors for Wasabi's suit. There crucial to keeping the width of his plasma lasers from causing harm to him or someone else."

Baymax announced his scanners had picked up mirrors nearby. Of the mirrors were a bit dirty or cracked when they found them. Honey Lemon managed to find some in good condition, once they were polished.

For Tadashi suit, the duo found some polycarbonate, which they would use to protect the pockets of robotic parts until they were needed. Baymax's suit needed fuel tanks small enough to fit in the armor, but large enough to also carry enough fuel to propel him through the air.

For Go-Go and Honey Lemon herself, they needed to find something to help streamline Go-Go suit. The less drag she had, the faster she could go. Also, Honey Lemon's helmet would need to have trivex, a new plastic used in eyeglass lenses to help her see without the need to wear them.

They arrived back at the garage just as the others had arrived back with their projects. Tadashi had primed the 3D printer to incorporate the materials needed to make the suits.

"There is no turning back! We are about to become legends!" Fred giggled in delight causing Wasabi to back away from. "Are you ready for this?" The others nodded.

The 3D printer got to work creating the armor out and adding in the items they had gathered. The next step was for them to carefully integrate their projects into their suits, without blowing up the garage.

After that, it was time to tailor the superhero costumes to fit them. Baymax used his medical knowledge to help the process go faster. His scanner made sure everything contoured to the body comfortably.

The last step was to put the uniforms together. They all had a primary color to their uniform. Tadashi's primary color was orange. He wearing black pants with orange armor that went down to his shins, along with black combat boots with orange laces. Around his waist was a multi-compartment brown belt.

His chest and back were covered by orange plates, while the shirt, which was black, had two pockets on the sides. The color scheme and pocket design continued on the arms going from the hand to just past the elbow.

His helmet was a modified version of his scooter helmet. It was black with orange streaks. The new visor installed inside it was a burnt orange and the upper part of the visor could scan and gather data.

Admiring himself in the mirror, Tadashi smiled fondly. His little brother would have loved dressing up like this and having fun adventures together. "This is for you little brother. This is for you."

* * *

Now that they had their superhero uniforms, it was time for a little training. Tadashi knew if they just ran off after finding Yokai, then they would probably end up in a big mess. If they planned ahead, it would be much easier to handle the villain.

They trained in Fred's big private back yard. Heathcliff wasn't even fazed when Fred begged him to be a stand-in for Yokai so the group could test run their new abilities.

Heathcliff mentioned something about Fred's father doing the same thing years ago. That left Fred puzzled, but he was sure going to ask about it next time his dad was home.

Tadashi was up first. He stretched out getting use to his suit's weight. Signaling Heathcliff he was ready, the butler turned on the outdoor security system. It was made up of a bunch of lasers, robotic arms, and even pitfalls.

Tadashi took off running and jumped over the pitfall. He reached into his belt and grabbed a few robotic pieces. He quickly snapped them together and chucked a mini robot on one of the robotic arms.

As he dodged around them, the robot went to work. It quickly went over to the joints on the arm and proceeded to dismantle it. As soon as one arm was done it started jumping to the other arms to dismantle them as well.

Reaching the laser grid, the college boy took out two mirrors from his side pockets and attached them to his arms. He dove towards the ground and started crawling, the mirrors deflecting the beams. Once he was clear, his little robot jumped over the grid and into his palm.

Smiling, he held his hand out high. The little robot jumped onto Heathcliff's masked face and proceeded to confiscate it as the college student handcuffed the butler.

"That was a lot of fun! Now I see why Hiro designed this suit just for him."

Baymax's turn was next. Tadashi had improved his speed so it would match a person walking at a fast pace. That helped him get closer to Heathcliff before activating his wings and flying over the butler's head. He gently plucked the mask off and landed. "I have accomplished the goal and I conserved my fuel."

Honey Lemon clapped her hands in delight. "That's great Baymax. Since you can move faster, you won't need to fly as much to get around."

Fred flipped off his kaiju head. "Alright people! We need to get back to training. I want to go next!"

Soon each of them had their turn and they all succeed at getting the mask by themselves. Now it was time to practice working together with someone else. The first team would be the girls.

Once again, there were obstacles to overcome. The ground became uneven which would make it hard for Go-Go to move. Next, there were several different chemical storage devices. They would carefully contain any of Honey Lemon's chemballs.

"The objective is to get across the lawn and reach Heathcliff without any injuries or damage. Are you two ready?"

"Ready Tadashi!"

Fred yelled start and the girls took off. Their run started off smoothly. Both girls were able to traverse the walkway and there were no problems. When the path got a bit bumpy Go-Go managed to stay upright.

Go-Go started to struggle when the path turned craggy. Her balance started to go as her wheels had trouble maneuvering through the path. She quickly righted herself.

Suddenly the path changed to super slippery. The wheels completely lost touch with the ground. She started to fall over when Honey Lemon threw a few chemballs.

The path became smooth like asphalt and Go-Go regained traction. Go-Go gave Honey Lemon a thumbs up as they continued down the path. A little bit later they encountered the chemical storage units.

Honey Lemon hesitated, not wanting to risk causing damage if her chemballs went into the wrong storage container. Go-Go grabbed her arm and pulled the tall girl onto her back.

Honey Lemon shut her eyes as Go-Go made her way around the storage units. With her in the zone, Go-Go managed to avoid clipping any of the units. At last, the two girls made it to the end and tapped Heathcliff's shoulder.

"You go, girls! That was some amazing woman power!"

"Thanks, now it's your turn to show us how well you work together."

The next ones up were Wasabi and Fred. This time to get to Heathcliff they had to manage to get through a maze. The maze had several small paths and large paths. There were also several tunnels. This was a test to see how the two of them would adapt to different sizes of space.

Fred got a little too enthusiastic, rushing into the maze and bouncing all around until he got stuck in the mouth of a tunnel. Wasabi had to come and rescue him.

"We've got to stick together Fred. Use your head please."

"Okay Wasabi, I promise."

Picking a wall, the continued to follow it until they reached a section of the maze that was very tight. Fred might have been able to shimmy sideways through it if he wasn't in his suit. The point of the exercise was to work together to find their way out.

"Oh, I know! I could jump up and look to see if there's another path we can take to get where we need to go." He jumped super high spun in a complete circle then landed. If we go back and left the path is broader.

So they backtracked, keeping their hands on one wall as they took the broader path. They continued down until the path split in two different directions. This time, Fred couldn't bounce up because there was roofing over their heads.

"So how do we pick a path?"

"We keep following the path we're on. If it dead ends we come back here." He slashed the wall with his plasma blades making a large X. "This will alert us if we've been here. Then we know to take the other path to find our way out."

They did just that. Their first choice did come to a dead end, so they went back and took the other path. Each place they went Wasabi made a mark. Finally, they exited the maze. "We did it buddy!"

"Yeah, we sure did."

Last up was Baymax and Tadashi. The challenge was simple. Baymax and Tadashi had to sneak up on Heathcliff without making a sound while coordinating between each other with body language only. That was especially a challenge with Baymax.

Even though Baymax was faster, he still made small sounds as he toddled. The robot had to step carefully by determining how much weight down and when.

Since Tadashi couldn't speak to his partner, he had to use hand signals to speak to Baymax. The robot would look at him puzzled at times, wondering what his creator was trying to tell him. When Baymax lost sight of Tadashi, he would continue on with the last action he had been told.

It took a few tries, but eventually, Tadashi and Baymax managed to complete the challenge. While Fred and Tadashi were eager to get started for the search, it was level headed Wasabi who pointed out they needed to practice more, with different partners and as a full team.

Honey Lemon and Go-Go also agreed with him. They did make an exception if Yokai surfaced that night they would go after him, but if he didn't they would take two more days to practice.

Strangely, Yokai didn't appear that night or the two following days, giving the group plenty of time to practice. It was difficult at first when they switched up partners.

For example, Wasabi started crying anytime Honey Lemon chemballs released goop on him. Then Go-Go got impatient with Tadashi's robots taking so long to do their job. Fred's craziness wasn't exactly compatible with Baymax's logical mind.

After a few more tries, the partnering up smoothed out. Wasabi managed to dodge Honey Lemon's chemballs and use the bouncy ones to get around. Go-Go slowed down a little so the Tadashi's robots could finish their job before the two of them caught up. Fred calmed down a little to work better with Baymax.

Team building exercises had the group following game plans, so they knew where to go and whose back to cover. If someone fell down another member would fall back and protect them. Each exercise Heathcliff would put up different challenges and the group beat every single one of them.

At the moment, Heathcliff had brought refreshments to help them cool down. "Will there be anything else Master Frederick?"

"We're good. Take the rest of the day off."

Heathcliff nodded and left. He was going to enjoy the staff hot tub and read his favorite book.

Fred grinned. "So now that we're superheroes how are we going to find Yokai? It's going to take us forever to scan every person in the city if we have to scan one person at a time."

Honey Lemon spoke up. "Freddie, I'm sure Dashi has come up with a plan to help us find Yokai faster. Isn't that right?"

Tadashi nodded. "We have a way to scan whole sections of the city, but it's still going to take a little time. I've increased the range of the scanner while programming Baymax to automatically disregard anyone who isn't the right blood type."

Go-Go looked skeptical. "How is Baymax going to scan entire sections of the city from the ground? We don't have a car to drive around to different locations."

Baymax interpolated Go-Go. "I will need to be very high up. I'm going to have to fly up on top of a blimp. From the higher advantage point, I'll be able to scan whole sections of the city in a fraction of the time it would take to scan people one by one."

This meant once they knew where Yokai was, they could travel there with Baymax and apprehend the man.

* * *

While the gang was getting ready to track Yokai, he was already on Akuma Island, a small testing facility owned by Krei Tech that had been shut down years ago.

He strode through the facility with confidence. He had been a little surprised the third piece of the machine he sought was still in the facility. Then again, its creator would never throw something this valuable away, merely hide it until it could be used again.

There was work to be done before he could take the third piece back with him. First, he would need to search the computers for any data relating to project the machine had been used for.

"Without that data, I can't be a hundred percent confident that man will be sent to the right place to die."

He found the project sever was still intact but wasn't active. There wasn't much power in the building since it had been abandoned years ago. He faintly recalled a few emergency generators had been installed in the event the entire facility lost power. Maybe they were still there and fueled up.

Leaving the server, for now, he found his way into the basement, descending on a stream of microbots. It was even darker in the basement and there were no emergency lights to help guide him.

The man paused holding still for a minute. He waited until he heard the sound of something trying to start up. Satisfied, he headed in the direction of the sound and found himself near six huge emergency generators.

He checked them over and saw they were still fully functional. They still had enough gas in them to run the facility for a few hours. Perfect he thought. With a little help, he started the generators back up, power restored to the building.

Now that the computer servers were up and running, Yokai had complete access to all the data from the project. He reviewed the data carefully, not wanting to miss a single fact.

Satisfied with what he read, he downloaded it all onto a series of flash drives before proceeding to the next step. That involved checking to see if the third piece still had all its parts before inspecting it for defects and what needed to be cleaned.

Upon reaching the third piece, he started to inspect the item. Checking the schematics, it became clear a few parts were missing. Those parts were key components of getting the device to function.

"There better be some in storage. I can't upgrade or change these parts out," he muttered to himself. He stomped angrily to the storage rooms, his footsteps echoing in the building.

The first few storage areas were devoid of parts, so then he started to check the labs, kicking the doors open one by one. He was about to lose it when he came across a lab that had some equipment left over from testing.

He directed his little helpers to check the equipment and determine if it was still functional. If it was they were to bring it to him immediately. If they weren't functioning properly then fix them before rejoining him.

Going back to where he had been, the man took off his mask to get a proper look at the final part of the machine. He wiped off the dust with his hand with a sad expression on his face. "You stole my child from me. It's only fair I get to take your life in compensation."

* * *

Back with the college kids, they were waiting for Baymax to come back to pick them up once he confirmed where Yokai was hiding. Tadashi was impatiently tapping his fingers. He wanted to apprehend Yokai so badly.

Honey Lemon put her hands over his to stop him from tapping. "I know your anxious Dashi, but remember. We're doing this to bring your brother justice. Don't let your anger and grief make you do something you'll regret."

Tadashi squeezed her hand in a silent thank you. The girl blushed up a storm. Behind them, Go-Go pretended to gag, while Wasabi wiped a tear from his eye.

Fred, who had been eagerly watching the sky, jumped up excitedly when he saw Baymax returning. "Look! The big guy is back and it's only been forty five minutes! Dude, your robot is quick."

Baymax landed with effortlessness looking over each of his team members to double check their health. Ratifying they were in relatively good condition he explained what he found.

"The individual identified as Yokai is currently on an island, five miles off the shore of the city. There is a structure on the island and it is surrounded by fences with warnings of quarantine."

"Quarantined? Maybe we should heed the warning and stay here!"

"Don't be such a big baby Wasabi."

Tadashi looked puzzled by this statement. "Could you identify the reason for the island being quarantined?"

Baymax shook his head. "I ran a complete scan of all known diseases and toxins. There was none present. Nor could I find any non-medical reason for it. My assessment is the quarantine was created to cover something up."

Fred crooned happily about a conspiracy theory. He started making suggestions until Go-Go kicked him so he be quiet. "If there is a cover up, then Yokai must know what it is and why. We'd be walking on his turf."

"True, but he's not expecting us and our upgrades. If we do this carefully, we can take him off guard and capture him before he has time to use the microbots. Baymax, can you carry all five of us with you to the island?"

"Certainly. Shall I do so now?"

Tadashi nodded and didn't look at a whimpering Wasabi. They all climbed aboard Baymax as they took off for Akuma Island.


	6. Shocking Discoveries

The gang landed on Akuma Island taking in the facility in front of them. Parts of it had crumbled and the exposure to the elements had caused paint to fade. Plants had started to push their way through several cracks and there was even a pigeon's nest where there used to be floodlights.

"This place is seriously creeping me out people. I have a feeling that any moment something is going to jump out and try to kill us!"

"Calm down Wasabi. I don't think Krei Tech would manufacture a monster here," Tadashi told his friend.

Go-Go spotted a door to the facility. She tried to open the door, but it was stuck. "Baymax, can you rip this door off already?"

Baymax scanned the door and proclaimed he could not. There was no space to place his fingers around the door. He also ran the numbers in his head and didn't think he could punch a large enough hole for all of them to enter.

"Wasabi, it's your turn. Can you get that door open?"

Wasabi took a deep breath and activate his plasma blades. He slashed a huge X in the door. The heavy metal door burst into tiny pieces leaving an opening they could get through. "Now that's how you open a door."

The group proceeded in caution. The inside of the facility was a maze of corridors. The emergency lighting flickered from time to time. They took a right at a junction and came across a hallway filled with labs. The doors appeared to have been halfway ripped off.

The symbol that had been on the machine was embossed on the door to a lab. They slipped inside and took a look around. Part of the room had office desks and the other half had a video screen and what looked like models or something.

Honey Lemon found the DVD player and turned it on. The video screen flickered for a few seconds and then the video started to play. The title of the movie was Project Silent Sparrow.

The title screen disappeared and they saw a brown-haired woman in a lab coat standing in front of the screen. "Project Silent Sparrow log entry 001. Lead scientist of Astrophysics of Krei Tech, Anna Wiseman.

CEO Alistair Krei Tech has approached our department to help with his new government contract to create an instant travel portal. The department's job is to find if wormholes really exist, and if so, determine how stable they can be between two points. I admit I'm skeptical if they do exist. According to Einstein field equations when solved with the Jacobian matrix and determinant, they do exist. If they do, our team will find them."

The video blacked out for a second and then Dr. Wiseman reappeared. According to the time stamp, this section of the video occurred three months after the initial one.

"Project Silent Sparrow log entry 030. After an extensive search, our team has discovered a real wormhole! As excited as I am, Mr. Krei is forbidding anyone to make an announcement of this colossal discovery or write a paper on it. My colleagues and I, have agreed to publish our findings after Project Silent Sparrow is complete.

My team has begun our study of the wormhole itself. The Krei Tech deep space telescope is keeping an eye on the wormhole to ensure it is still there. I theorize we may only have days to make our observations and collect data on the celestial anomaly.

Early readings indicate that the Casimir effect shows that quantum field theory allows the energy density in certain regions of space to be negative relative to the ordinary matter vacuum energy, and it has been shown theoretically that quantum field theory allows states where energy can be _arbitrarily_ negative at a given point. Many physicists, such as Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, and others, argue that such effects might make it possible to stabilize a traversable wormhole.

Further testing is needed to fully explore the mechanics of how wormholes form, what is going on inside one, and to determine how far the two entry points are."

The video skipped to the next log entry. This one was 116 and was from almost a year after the last one. "The wormhole disappeared earlier today. The team is very upset naturally. What data we have gathered is minimal to questions we have. Mr. Krei has ordered our department to share our findings with both the Chemical and Engineering departments in order to start stage two of Project Silent Sparrow.

I am apprehensive of this decision. I think it's too soon for the other departments to get involved in this project. I have relayed my concerns with the other department heads. They've agreed to keep us in the loop. I don't dare bring up my concerns to Mr. Krei himself, otherwise, I would be terminated and never find work again."

The DVD came to an end. The group looked at each other in shock. They couldn't believe such a huge discovery had been kept from the scientific community.

"Well, at least we know wormholes are no longer science fiction. In your face science!" Fred said to the others hoping to lighten the mood. Seeing their glares he added. "I know this is serious, but there is so much tension, I felt the need to lighten the mood."

"Humor is an excellent way to relieve stress. My scans indicate all of your stressed levels have gone down slightly because of Fred's jokes."

* * *

The group exited the lab and walked further down the hall. They came across the Chemical and Engineering labs. They split into two groups, Honey Lemon, Tadashi, and Baymax went into the chemical lab, while Go-Go, Wasabi, and Fred went to the engineering one.

Honey Lemon looked around the chemical lab. Most of the chemicals were gone and the few that remained didn't appear to be usual. The computer in this lab was smashed meaning she couldn't look up digital information. She started opening drawers looking for paper reports.

Tadashi and Baymax did the same. About two minutes later, Tadashi let the others know he had found some hard copies of what had been going on in the lab. He looked through the papers. "I can't even begin to understand half these formulas. Can you make any sense of them?"

Honey Lemon eagerly looked over the information. Getting the chemical makeup of a wormhole must have been rather difficult. After all, scientists determined the chemical makeup of stars by use of a spectroscope.

Using one, a person could study the refraction of light by a prism or through its diffraction by a diffraction grating, the light from a source is spread out into its different visual wavelengths, from red to blue.

The spectra of the Sun and stars exhibited bright and dark lines called Fraunhofer lines. These were shown to be caused by elements emitting or absorbing light at specific wavelengths. Because each element emits or absorbs light only at specific wavelengths, the chemical composition of stars can be determined.

It appeared they tried to use the same method with the wormhole. The results they had received were confusing. It appeared the inside of the wormhole, the Fraunhofer lines changed rather quickly, so it was rather difficult to pinpoint the exact chemical signature of the interior.

"These chemical formulas are extremely complex. It seems the interior of the wormhole was similar to a star by being 72% hydrogen and 27% helium. However, it doesn't stay that way all the time."

She pointed to the formulas on the papers as well as test results as she showed Tadashi and Baymax. "According to these tests, the interior shifts its chemical composition at different intervals, but they weren't able to come up with a pattern.

They found traces of different rare earth metals, chromium, and chemicals they couldn't even identify because they're not found on earth! Chemicals yet to be added to the periodic table! There are atomic orbits that go way beyond 118! The scientists were not allowed to even name them!"

"Very strange. Usually, the person who makes the discovery is allowed to name the elements. I am puzzled why someone would not wish to share their discovery with the world," Baymax pipped in.

Tadashi looked at the ceiling. There were chemical burns up there which confused him greatly. "Honey Lemon, do you know what the goal of the Chemical department was for Project Silent Sparrow?"

Honey Lemon shuffled the papers and found the correct page. "The goal was to determine if they could recreate the wormhole environment here and if it was safe for humans to travel through. This report doesn't contain any information if they succeed or not."

They left the lab and joined up with their friends. They compared notes on what they found. According to what Go-Go's team found, the Engineering department had been asked to design a whole new magnetic containment unit along with massive gateway that connected two points together while an artificial wormhole was generated between them.

"The engineering design is blowing my mind. It's extremely complex and years ahead of anything I could think of. I can tell you the team was testing prototypes but did the actually finish the machine? I don't know."

A shiver ran up Tadashi's spine. He had a strong hunch the machine had been made. "Baymax, do you detect anyone other than us here?"

"The facility is blocking my scanner. I am detecting a surge of power going to a vast room nearby. Should we go there?"

The group headed to the roomed to the room and once they entered, their jaws dropped. On the ground floor, there was a twisted track and machinery pulled in strange directions. There was completely blackened intact portal.

The other portal was missing a large amount of it. Only a single slightly damaged section of the portal remained. The walls and the roof had caved in slightly. Something cataclysmic had occurred.

Fred bounced up to an observation deck and told the others to hurry. He had found something they needed to look at. They found a live computer and opened the video file.

The time stamp showed this video was taken three and a half years after the original log entry. To them, this date had happened five years ago. Tadashi pushed play and they watched the video discovering the horror of what happened in this place.

* * *

Behind them, Yokai was trying to control his fury. Using the microbots he picked up a chunk of twist track and threw it at the unsuspecting group.

With his advanced hearing, Baymax heard the track coming towards them. With his new speed, he twisted around and shot his rocket fist at the track. It cracked into smaller pieces that fell to the ground.

The team reacted perfectly. Each paired off with a partner and assessed the problem. Their brains saw all the possibilities and they were able to communicate them to one another through their coms.

Go-Go was first to engage the enemy. She zoomed to the bottom and threw one of her discs at Yokai, who blocked it with the microbots. Not discouraged, Go-Go tried again from a different angle, but was again blocked.

Yokai spread his arms wide as possible. In response, the microbots turned into the shape of massive vines slamming down on the floor doing their best to crush Go-Go.

She spun around and threw both discs this time. One at Yokai's face and the other at one of the microbot vines. The disc she sent a Yokai's mask hit and a tiny crack formed.

The one that she threw at the microbots was caught by them and thrown back at her with great force. It struck her diaphragm knocking the wind out of her. The robotic vine wrapped around her body and started to squeeze her.

"Hang on I'm coming!" Honey Lemon shouted. She threw three chemballs. One to create a springy platform. The second one to make the microbots extremely brittle and the last one at Yokai, which turned into ice, making him slip off the microbots.

With the metal brittle, Honey Lemon jumped up one more time and swung her purse. The robotic vine broke. Go-Go fell to the ground where Honey Lemon caught her and steadied her. "Are you okay?"

"Give me a minute and I will be. Thanks."

"No problem. We need to fall back to give Wasabi and Fred a chance to work."

Fred had jumped over to the other side of the room. Getting a running start, he bounced very high and came down on Yokai. The man growled in anger and shoved the kaiju suit wearing hero off him.

Clenching his fists, the robotic vines came together to form a giant hammer. The man brought it down with all his rage. Fred, jumped out the way and spat fire at them.

The robotic hammer changed into a shield, withstanding the fire, before turning back into a hammer and trying to pound Fred into the ground. The relentless attack kept Fred on his toes halting his progress of moving forward towards the enemy.

Uncharacteristically, Wasabi came out of hiding and started whipping his plasma blades around. He was slashing through the microbots and was dancing around the ones scurrying across the floor intent on capturing him.

"Excuse me, coming through. Try not to interrupt my adrenaline rush!" Wasabi shouted. He plowed through the microbots, his eyes on the prize. He let out a whoop, expecting to see Yokai, but the man was gone. "What?"

Wasabi was hit from behind by what felt like bullets. He screamed in pain and fell down in agony.

Yokai was preparing another round when Baymax's rocket fist him from behind. Tadashi jumped off and tossed a handful of spherical robots, which transformed into miniature spiderbots.

The robots started climbing all over Yokai's clothing aiming to remove the mask. The man tore at his clothing trying to get rid of the robots. The microbots shook all on the ground.

"He's distracted! Baymax, get the mask!" Tadashi commanded.

Baymax flew over and grabbed the man in a tight one armed hug. "Please calm down. I am simply removing your mask."

"GET OFF!" Yokai screeched as he twisted out of the robot's hold. The microbots quickly snapped together to form a battering ram and sent Baymax flying across the air.

"Oh no," Baymax whispered as crashed into Tadashi. Their friends rushed to help them.

"You're not going to interfere anymore!" Yokai shouted. The microbots rushed across the floor and started pulling the floor apart. To hidden doors were pried open and the group fell into a decontamination room below. The doors closed trapping the gang in the room below.

* * *

In the decontamination room below the heroes looked were de-tangling themselves. They hadn't expected to be dropped into a decontamination room by Yokai. It was a surprise with all their training and strategizing, Yokai still got the best of them.

"Is everyone okay?" their leader asked. The others mumbled out responses that they were okay.

"How could we not notice the floor could open up?" Wasabi wondered out loud.

"We were so focused on Yokai, we didn't observe our surroundings as well as we should have," Honey Lemon pointed out.

"Not to mention this means the villain has been here before. His knowledge of the place is not of one who just arrived here," Fred added in a dramatic voice.

Baymax scanned the room. He didn't pick up any traces of hazardous material. He did note however the room was in triple lockdown and all the doors were locked and dead bolted.

He shared his findings with the group, who tensed upon hearing this. They needed to get out of here and quickly. Yokai could leave them trapped down here or come to finish them off to ensure they would stop interfering with his plans.

They were in the dirty zone so they walked through the plastic strips into the clean room where the door out was situated. It was just as Baymax said. Even the vents were in lockdown, meaning they had a limit amount of oxygen to get out of here.

"We have to get through the plating to access the door. Baymax and Wasabi, I think you two should work together to get us out of here."

Wasabi nodded as he activated his plasma blades. He started to cut the frame of the door so Baymax could pull it off, but found himself unable to do so. "I can't cut this. The door frame must be made of a non-conductive material to prevent plasma cutting."

Baymax toddled over and bent down. He placed his hands on the door then tried to shove it up. He managed to get it halfway up before he had to stop. "The door appears to have been designed in a way to prevent itself from being forcefully opened."

Go-Go snapped her gum in frustration. Her mind was screaming for her to get back out there and stop Yokai. Being patient was difficult for her. "Let me give it a try. Honey Lemon, can you hook me up with something to help me take down the door. "

Honey Lemon coated Go-Go's wheels with a material to make them stronger. Spreading her limbs as far as they would go, she started up her wheels but didn't move. They started whirring faster and faster.

Sparks started flying as everyone took a step back. The whirring got louder and they could see their friend pushing herself to the limit to get through the plating.

After a few minutes, Go-Go collapsed. There was a loud thud as the first door plating fell to the ground. The others hurried to her side to see if she was okay.

After a quick scan, Baymax informed the others she was simply exhausted and needed a few minutes to catch her breath. Relaxing, the group turned back to the plating to figure out how to get through the remaining two panels and the door itself.

Fred flexed his monster fingers as the grin on his face widened. "Alright, it's time for Fredzilla to show up every! I'm ready to use one of my newly created signature moves. The Flaming Bounce Kick!"

Fred took a deep breath and blew fire out of his mouth, not even hearing his friends telling him to not use the flamethrower.

His spewing fire pushed him up to the ceiling, where he bounced off aiming for the door with his right leg cocked back. Thirty seconds before he hit the door he kicked forward and managed to kick through the other two panels.

"I am awesome owww!" Fred fell over due to a recovered Go-Go pushing him over.

"You idiot! You used up almost all the oxygen in the room!"

"Let's not start arguing guys."

"Yeah, no talking! Got to conserve our air. Is anyone else getting dizzy?" Wasabi yelped. The burly fellow was starting to panic. Sensing the stress Baymax came over and hugged him.

While Baymax distracted the rest of the group, Tadashi was fiddling with his robotic components. He was trying to make a skeleton key for the deadbolts on the door. With precious little time left the college man focused zeroed in on the job.

He used his smallest mobile parts to form the shape of a key, then snapped in place the tiniest ridged blades. He played around with the key for a minute or two and got the first one unbolted.

With trembling hands, worked on the second one, trying to ignore how he was starting to gasp for oxygen and feeling weaker by the second. With one final twist of the skeleton key, the door popped open.

They all crawled out and took gulps of bad fresh air, happy to be free of the room and not dying on the floor. Baymax tilted his head up. His scanner detected Yokai in the room above preparing to remove the remains of the portal.

"Yokai is still in the building. We have a chance to capture him if we hurry." The humans nodded, ready for round two with Yokai.

* * *

Yokai was very pleased he didn't have to deal with that meddlesome group anymore. They wouldn't survive very long in a triple lockdown decontamination room.

The microbots were carefully unclamping the final piece of the portal. This piece of the portal had taken the most damage in the incident. He would have to be gentle when transporting this back to his lair to fix.

Gesturing with his hands, the microbots finished unclamping the piece and formed a solid base underneath. Yokai raised both the piece and himself in the air. Finally, he had everything he needed to complete his plan.

Just then the microbots shook violently. Both towers went down about a foot. Unsure what was going on, the towers took another hit and he went down even further.

"What is happening?" he growled. The towers took another hit and now he was only a halfway to the floor. Twisting around he saw what was causing the towers to fall. The superheroes were back in action.

Honey Lemon was in the zone as she tossed two chemballs. When they made contact with the microbots they formed a sticky mess. Fred bounced up and grabbed onto the mess and pulled it down with him.

There was a gurgle and squish, then a section of the microbots was pulled away and the tower went down.

"What does it take to KILL THE SIX OF YOU?!" Yokai raged. He plunged down through the remaining microbots, gathering them around him like a suit, then emerged from the bottom ready to fight hand to hand.

First up was Wasabi. He had taken a few self-defense classes, so he had a bit of knowledge on how to fight hand to hand. Deactivating his plasma blades, he waited until Yokai made the first move.

He didn't have to wait long. Yokai came at him for a frontal attack. Wasabi ducked under the guy's punch the used the heel of his hand to strike where Yokai's nose was supposed to be.

He managed to widen the crack on the mask. He crossed his arms together to block the next punch. Wasabi aimed his next attack for the guy's right shoulder, but the microbots cushioned the blow so it didn't hurt a lot.

Yokai made his move and kicked Wasabi's right knee. The microbots enhanced the kick and the physics major let out an agonizing cry. Before he could recover Yokai hit Wasabi with both fists in the middle of the chest.

Wasabi went down for the count. Angered by his actions. Go-Go zoomed over and plowed into Yokai loosening the mask. She raised her arm to strike the man's neck and struck.

Again the microbots weakened the blow. Yokai grabbed her arm and twist it. Go-Go ignored the pain and used her body weight to pull the man towards her then flipped him over her shoulder.

Before she could react, the masked man spun on the floor and sweep Go-Go off her feet. He dove at her only to be tackled by Fred.

Yokai easily pushed the lanky young adult off and slammed his hand into the third eye on the costume, where Fred's face was. Fred grabbed his face with his real hands to check himself over as he knelt down on the floor.

Standing up, he looked at the remaining three with cold eyes. He beckoned them forward. "Care to spar with me? Doesn't the lady know how to SING in combat?"

Honey Lemon froze, unable to move. She vaguely recalled the term he used was from a Sandra Bullock movie, but she couldn't remember which one.

Tadashi came to her defense. As Yokai moved to strike her, he used one of his karate moves to knock the man back. The villain stumbled over Fred as he was getting up again.

The man fell on his right side and his mask slipped off his face. It skidded across the room and was snatched up by Go-Go, who was helping get Wasabi back on his feet.

The microbots stopped moving and fell into a neat pile. Tadashi moved in, a pair of handcuffs in his hands. "It's over Krei. I'm taking you in."

Yokai chuckled darkly as he pushed himself upright. "I thought you were smarter than this Mr. Hamada, but then again it took you eighty four tries to make that marshmallow work right."

The gang gasped in shock. They recognized that voice now it wasn't disguised. No one dared move or breathe as Robot Callaghan stared at his former students, a mad gleam in his eyes. It didn't make sense. Callaghan had perished in the fire. How was he still alive and why was he stealing stuff, while also attempting to kill them?

The man clapped his hands a few times. "I have to admire your persistence, Mr. Hamada. Really, all of you pushed the boundaries in this matter. I knew you were all bright, but I didn't realize how dumb you could all be."

"Professor Callaghan, I don't understand," Tadashi replied in a bewildered tone of voice. "Why did you steal Hiro's microbots and try to kill us?

Callaghan laughed and mocked the group with his words. "I don't understand. What is it you don't get Hamada? I did what I did to get my revenge on Krei for sending my daughter into that blasted portal to die!"

The rage in his voice echoed across the room. Gone was the kind old professor personality. Now they saw the true Callaghan. A bitter, angry, and rage filled human. The air around him seemed to be filled with hatred.

Everyone was scared and unconsciously moved closer to one another forming a protective semi-circle with one another. Since Baymax couldn't approximate fear, he just kept scanning Callaghan to figure if there was a medical issue he could treat.

"Abigale was a bright young woman. She was very proud of her contributions to expand scientific knowledge. She would have gone on to change the world, but Krei's actions ensured that would never happen!

I have been planning my revenge ever since that moment! I tried to tell the world about what happened, only to be shut down by the government due to the nature of the experiment. Every avenue I pursued legally to get retribution was denied to me. So I stayed on at SFIT biding my time. Waiting for the day I would find a true genius to aid me in my revenge.

I openly admit the five of you are among the brightest minds I've ever encountered. You pushed the limits of science even further than I thought you would, but your brother Hiro, now he was the genius among geniuses."

Hearing all of this kids growled. How dare he speak Hiro's name! "Your brother's invention was just what I needed to take my revenge. Everything was going smoothly until you got involved in this. I thought my many attempts to kill you would convince you to back off, but it seems I was wrong. I gave you every chance to walk away from this, but I can't have you interfering with my plans to get justice for Abigale."

Tadashi yelled angrily at Callaghan, ignoring Fred who was tapping on his shoulder. "You killed my brother and justify it by saying your daughter's accidental death is more important!

Hiro was still alive, he had promise too. You're just like Krei taking away someone's future, only this time it was intentional! Are you even the least bit sorry about killing him?"

Callaghan just stood there smirking. He clearly thought Tadashi was acting like a child.

Tadashi fought to keep his anger under control. He wasn't here for revenge, but justice. The tapping on his shoulder was getting irritating. "What is it, Fred?"

The boy just pointed in the direction the pile of microbots was. Only they weren't there anymore. All five humans had their eyes widen in fear as they saw the microbots squirming around the floor and creating restraints. Baymax whispered, "Oh no."

"This doesn't make any sense! We have the neural transmitter! How are you still moving the microbots?" Tadashi demanded.

Callaghan scoffed. "Oh, Tadashi. I'm not the one controlling the microbots. I'm _controlling the person who is!"_

* * *

There was whoosh in the air coming directly at Tadashi, who ducked as someone flew over him. He jumped and then did a few flips to get out of the way of the microbots coming after him.

The rest of the gang did the same. Honey Lemon used a chemballs to freeze the microbots long enough for the rest of the gang to jump to safety on the main floor of the room.

It was then that everyone got a good look at Callaghan's partner. The person was a short, skinny, male. He wore a black and silver soft exosuit over his body, with plum colored armor that encased his chest and back, his arms from the elbows to his wrists, and his knees down to his ankles.

Robotic prosthetics covered his hands and feet. Along the sides of his body, tiny servos helped the body move in sync with the armor. They couldn't tell who was in the suit due to a helmet with a tinted black visor.

The partner was gliding around the room because the microbots had created wings based on a flying fish gliding fins. The partner aimed his palms at the group and out of the robotic limb a small barrel popped out.

"Scatter!" Go-Go shouted as microbot bullets were fired at them. They fled in different directions to avoid the lithe partner. He adjusted his gliding and pursued Fred.

"Surprise villain and mysterious evil sidekick? I am so ready for this!" Spotting a piece of paneling on the ground, Fred scooped it up. He bounced high and used the panel to deflect the microbot bullets back towards the enemy.

The male dodged the spray and regained control of them in midair, firing them back at Fred, who was going down on his bounce. They dinged the panel up, but it was still useful as a shield.

Seeing that the bullets were not working, Callaghan's partner landed on the main floor and the microbots turned into a Segway. He jumped on and then powered his way towards the girls.

The girls threw their weapons only for the Segway to change into a giant sphere. The disc bounced off and the chemballs did nothing to stop the sphere. Once the danger was over, they returned to the Segway.

Even at twelve miles an hour, being hit by a moving vehicle still hurt a lot. As soon as they were on the ground they were restrained by a microbot chain. Jumping off the Segway, the male somersaulted into Wasabi.

As Wasabi fell over the microbots lashed out to chain him up. Then they tossed him over to the girls. The girls' chains expanded to include him. Not missing a beat, Fred and Baymax were soon chained up as well.

The only one left was Tadashi. After the initial surprise, he had managed to skirt around the microbots. While his partner went after his teammates, Tadashi had tackled the old man and quickly cuffed his hands behind his back.

Torn between keeping a watch on Callaghan and saving his friends, the choice was made for Tadashi when Callaghan's partner turned his sights on the college student.

The partner waved his hands around in the air. The microbots responded by creating two giant fists. He started thrusting his hands back and forth rapidly. The fists responded like that old game where you tried to pop the head off of the other toy boxer.

Tadashi knew he was in trouble as the punches kept coming. The microbots were faster than he was and they could stretch as long as they needed to. He was not agile enough to get out of the way.

Reluctantly, Tadashi shoved Callaghan over to his partner. His left fist stopped trying to punch as the microbots uncuffed Callaghan, then proceeded over to the final piece.

The man patted his partner's head. He retrieved his mask from Honey Lemon. Before he could put it on, Tadashi who had grabbed on to the punching fist and was drawn back to the foe's partner.

Tadashi kicked the helmet off the partner and dropped down in a crouch. The microbots froze for a few seconds, as their user steadied himself. Tadashi took a look at Callaghan's partner.

He instantly went pale and his legs nearly gave out. He was forgetting how to breathe. He blinked several times as his mind tried to process what he was seeing. He didn't hear his friends gasp in shock due to revilement.

Tadashi spoke one word in a tight, emotional choked, whisper. "_Hiro_?"

* * *

Indeed it was Hiro under the helmet, but it was clear he had been through a trauma. The right side of his face had some burn scars along the cheek and near the base of the ear. The edges of his hair were still badly singed. With the suit on, no one could tell how badly injured the rest of his body was.

However, there were two things about Hiro's face that drew a person's attention rather quickly. First, his eyes had glazed look to them and they didn't seem to be focusing on anything. Second, the neural transmitter was fused to his skull, with serious inflammation around the forehead.

"_Hiro you're alive? _Hiro, why are you helping Callaghan?" Tadashi's question was answered with silence. He stared at his brother's blank face and tried again. "Hiro, it's me Tadashi! Your older brother! Talk to me please Hiro!"

"I doubt he can hear you and even if he did, he wouldn't be able to respond," Callaghan taunted. He put his hand on the boy's right shoulder and squeezed down tight. Again Hiro didn't react. "Your brother is in what I've appropriately named, a walking coma."

The college kids were confused by that as Baymax went through his entire database. He found no mention of a walking coma. Puzzled, he did a quick scan of his creator's brother. "It does appear indeed that Hiro Hamada is in fact in a coma. He is able to move and respond due to servos in the exosuit. I am also picking up strange brainwaves. Oh no, that is _odd_."

"What could be odder than Hiro coming back to life to serve as Callaghan's lackey?"

"There appear to be nanoscopic probes inside Hiro's body. They are assisting his body functions and appear to be fixing his injuries."

"Okay, that's just crazy."

Tadashi tuned out his friends, his eyes still on his little brother. For the first time, he noticed Hiro's eyelids had been stitched up to prevent them from closing. There was also a small oxygen line in his nose that seemed to attach to a medical pack inside the suit.

He gave Callaghan a death stare. "What did you **do **to my little brother Callaghan?!"

"Me? I kept him alive and he's been a big help in assisting me to prepare for my revenge against Krei. Shall I monologue like a good villain and explain how Hiro ended up like this? I know you won't harm a single hair on your brother or me until you know. Ah if only illustrated flashbacks were real, but I just have to hope my descriptive narrative does the job."

* * *

Callaghan paced back and forth before speaking. As he started to speak everyone found themselves picturing what he was saying in their mind. They were pulled back to the night of the showcase. They could almost see Hiro's excited expression as he talked with Callaghan, who was standing there patiently waiting to set off the fire, with a remote detonator.

"Every showcase, I would plant a device beforehand it event I found something I could use to help me obtain my revenge. For years, nothing of value was ever created.

The minute I saw Hiro's invention and heard him describe its capabilities, I knew it was the project I had been waiting for. In order to steal it, I needed the neural transmitter, which was still on his head. That's why I invited him to stay behind."

He paused for a moment, looking at Hiro before frowning angrily for a second. "I had every intention of letting Hiro walking out alive before I set the fire. I kept asking for him to give me the neural transmitter so I could use the microbots myself, but he wouldn't. He insisted he wanted to improve it before he let his "hero" use his technology.

I lost my patience and set off the explosion to early. The fire spread faster than anticipated. Hiro was trying to lead me to safety only for me to make a grab for the neural transmitter. We struggled not noticing the flames getting closer.

Right before the explosion, he commanded the microbots to shield us. They did as he asked, but it wasn't fast enough. The fiery explosion caught Hiro's right side before the microbots completed the sphere. The force of the explosion sent the sphere flying. We came down about two miles in a deserted park."

In their minds, they could see the sphere collapsing around them. A badly burned Hiro laying there. Blood and bumps from the microbot sphere's flight all over his body. Being dragged away by Callaghan to his hideout, still intent on claiming the neural transmitter.

"I had studied biology and medicine in my younger years before I started working with robotics. I managed to stabilize Hiro after stealing some medical supplies.

After he was stabilized, I realized the force of the explosion, combined with the heat of the flames, had fused the neural transmitter to his skull and connected the device directly with the brain. I couldn't pull it off.

I thought if Hiro died of natural causes, then I could simply remove it and then the microbots would follow my lead. Further testing revealed due to the transmitter being linked directly with Hiro's brain, that the microbots would only respond to Hiro's brainwaves, including new ones due to how the microbots communicated with one another. With that in mind, I did my best to keep Hiro alive and think of a way to keep him under my control."

The team was stunned to hear that their former professor would have just let a kid die and then mutilated his corpse in order to further his plans for revenge. Furthermore, he only saw Hiro as a puppet needing a puppeteer.

Tadashi felt so angry he almost missed the next part. Callaghan described how a few days after the fire, the microbots started to gather tech and medications on their own, or so it appeared.

It appeared that even in a deep coma, Hiro's will to survive was so strong, his brain continued to function with some higher levels of consciousness. Tadashi pictured the tiny robots searching for the materials they needed, (with Callaghan following them of course), and started to create smaller and smaller versions of themselves.

How after a week and a half, the microbots had actually created medical nanites. That they entered Hiro's body through the mouth and nose, slowly integrating themselves with his cells. That they started to assist in healing both his brother's internal and external injuries.

It was unbelievable. A coma patient, with only minimal knowledge of medical nanites, had managed to create them to heal himself. Hiro was not just a genius, he was a super genius!

"I assumed it was his idea of payback when he sent the microbots to chase everyone out of Good Luck Alley. While it was wonderful to see him using the microbots, each time they were used it took longer for them to complete their tasks. Even assembling together took about thirty minutes.

I realized if I was to use the microbots in my plans, I needed to find a way to direct my thoughts through Hiro to help him focus on the task at hand. That's when I remembered him discussing how he would use one neural transmitter to direct others how to use theirs."

Tadashi's eyes narrowed. "You needed the blueprints for the transmitter and the microbots, so you could direct Hiro in how to mass produce his creation. Which is why you broke into my garage. How did you even manage to get him to listen to your commands if he was in a coma?"

Callaghan seethed and spat at Tadashi. "Are you forgetting already that I have a degree in medicine? I read the latest articles on helping coma patients regain consciousness. I created a treatment which would increase higher brain function, but still suppress his consciousness."

Looking back now, it seemed so obvious. A lot of shapes the microbots had mimicked had almost been childlike. It didn't match up to the highly dangerous attacks towards the group. It was a clash between mindsets in trying to complete a task.

"Hiro always had to be in range for the connection to work. Eventually, I decided he needed to be by my side at all times. So I created the suit and implanted the servos to move his limbs for him. Right before you took my mask I sent the command for him to attack and capture you six."

Tadashi felt his heartbreaking and his anger rising. His little brother had been suffering for weeks, while Tadashi was wallowing in his own misery. He should have known Hiro was still alive!

"Give me back my brother Callaghan!" Tadashi snapped as he took a few steps towards the man. Instantly the microbots responded by creating a barrier to keep Tadashi apart from his brother.

The old man pointed at Tadashi, his posture threatening. In a furious tone, he said, "Your brother is _mine_ now! Once I've gotten my revenge I'll need him to start my life over somewhere else in the world. Say goodbye Tadashi, because this is the last time you'll ever see Hiro _again!_"

Helplessly, the team could only watch as Callaghan and Hiro escaped with the piece and parts they needed to complete the portal. As soon as the gang was free they rushed over to the leader who was crying.

"Hiro, my Hiro. I failed you. I failed you, little brother."


	7. Tadashi's Heart

Tadashi was sitting on the floor crying. He pulled his helmet off and chucked it away. "Hiro, Hiro, _Hiro_! How could this happen? I should have known! How could I not know my brother was still alive? There wasn't a body!"

He pounded the floor in anger over and over. He screamed out loud and cried even harder. "I wanted my brother to stop hanging out with criminals, now he is one. How do I explain this to Aunt Cass? That her other nephew is still alive only he's now a lackey to a robotics professor turn maniac criminal!"

Honey Lemon reached to assure Tadashi, only for him to slap her hand away. She looked at her friends anxiously. What did they do know? They all shrugged their shoulders slightly, unsure of what to do next.

Baymax assessed the situation. Being active all this time, he had come to understand emotions, friendship, and most important of all, family bonds. He was more than just a healthcare companion now. He was his own robotic person who could make his own choices. Right now, he was choosing to help his friend.

He walked over and leaned down embracing Tadashi in a strong hug. His creator struggled to break free, but Baymax just held on tighter. Eventually, Tadashi returned the embrace and his tears slowly stopped coming down his face.

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your emotional pain?"

"I think I'm off the scale right now. I'm a combination of different emotions. I'm happy that Hiro's alive, but also sad and angry about what's happened to him. At the same time, I have so many fears and am disgusted by what Callaghan's done to him," Tadashi admitted.

"In emotional situations such as this, it is normal to feel all five basic emotions. Combining them together is a way for you to identify what you truly feel. Your physiological and behavioral responses are normal."

Letting Tadashi go Baymax continued to comfort Tadashi. "You told me before you feel guilty when you thought you were responsible for Hiro's "death". That you wished it hadn't happened.

You also told me you were doing this to get justice for Hiro. None of that has changed now that you know he is alive. Hiro still needs you Tadashi. To save him from dying without proper healthcare. You also need to bring Callaghan in so he can be sentenced for what he has done."

Tadashi nodded but asked how he was supposed to that when his brother couldn't even register he was there.

"Are you forgetting about us?" Fred asked. He held a hand out to his friend. "Right now, I know you are feeling guilty and blame yourself for this. Tadashi, you're not the one at fault here. Callaghan's the one who decided to be a supervillain and turn your brother into a cyborg."

Tadashi took Fred's hand and stood up, but still looked at the floor in guilt. His emotions were still swarming inside. Right now he was really angry at himself for not doing more to rescue his brother while also feeling sad about his brother becoming a criminal.

He felt his face being cupped and he was not looking up at Wasabi. The big man had a calm face, but his eyes reflected how stern he was. "I can't even begin to comprehend what you're feeling right now. None of us saw this coming. How could we when Callaghan was so good at hiding his true nature?

You need to let go of your guilt right now Tadashi. If you don't, then you can't help Hiro. You're angry about the violation of his body. Also, you think he's a criminal now. Hiro is _not_ a criminal. Whatever actions he took, were to keep himself alive. Not just for his sake, but for you and Aunt Cass."

Go-Go rolled up next to her team leader and smiled kindly at him. It wasn't often that Go-Go showed her softer side to her friends which meant this was important. "Tadashi, I don't know what you should tell your aunt or even if we'll be able to save Hiro. What I do know is, you are the best big brother Hiro could ever have. You need him as much as Hiro needs you. So suck it up and be the big brother you are."

Honey Lemon removed her own helmet and kissed Tadashi on his cheek. The boy blushed as Honey Lemon gave him a fond look. "You're not alone Tadashi. We're friends and you're like family to us. Let us help you. Let's save Hiro."

Tadashi nodded as he walked over and put his helmet back on. "Baymax, take us back to our garage. If there's any weakness with the microbots or the neural transmitter, it will be on Hiro's computer."

Baymax eagerly spread out his wings. The team climbed on and left Akuma Island. If they were to stop Callaghan's crazy plan then they needed to use what little time they had to come up with a good plan.

* * *

Upon arriving back at his house, Tadashi was glad to see his aunt wasn't home right now. Seeing that her car was gone meant she was most likely running errands.

In the garage, Tadashi brought up the files on the neural transmitter and the microbots. He blew both up and had the diagrams of the microbots displayed on the two smaller side screens with the neural transmitter was on the main screen in the center.

Go-Go carefully looked over the design with Baymax. They needed to understand how the neural transmitter sent bio electrical signals to the robots and made them do what someone thought.

"Hiro based the design of the neural transmitter on modern neural implants that you use a brain-computer interface. The transmitter reads the brains electrical activity, then sends it wirelessly to the tiny sensors in the microbots, which turn the electric activity into binary numbers, telling the microbots what to do," she explained to her friends.

Baymax studied the coating on the transmitter. Hiro had designed his own soft gel needed to conduct the bio electrical impulses through the tiny electrodes. These electrodes even amplified the signal so the response time between the transmitters to the microbots was done in milliseconds.

Baymax explained this to the group and it was Fred who asked if there was a way to stop the transmitter from sending out a signal. Maybe even jam it so Callaghan couldn't control Hiro.

Honey Lemon shook her head. "The neural transmitter sends out signals based on electrical impulses in the brain. The brain is always active so there's no way to turn the transmitter off." She then pointed out the difficulty of jamming the signal. "Callaghan is seeking revenge on Krei. Wherever he is there would certainly be material that will block the signal or jam it."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Fred pestered as he wanted an answer to his question.

"It would if we knew the frequency that Callaghan is using to control Hiro, or, his frequency to control the microbots. As it is, with our time limit and available resources, we can only jam one at a time."

"Since Callaghan and Hiro are always on the move, any material that could block a signal won't be an issue for them," Fred said finishing her explanation. It went unsaid that even if they got Callaghan's neural transmitter and destroyed it, he could leave another order in Hiro's brain.

"What if we got Hiro out of range? Callaghan stated he needed Hiro to be in range for him to manipulate. The microbots would stop working right?" Wasabi asked.

It was possible, but they couldn't know for sure. The transmitter sensors amplified the signal. How far would Hiro have to be out of range? Even if they did, Callaghan could disappear and come back anytime he wanted Hiro.

"We have to remember something else. We can destroy Callaghan's neural transmitter. It is highly likely if he does escape jail and wants to get revenge on us that we need to destroy any data on the neural transmitter," Go-Go pointed out.

The others looked uncomfortable with that idea. What if the data on the neural transmitter was needed to help Hiro recover? If they erased this and destroyed Callaghan's flash drives, then the doctors wouldn't know what to do.

Go-Go sighed and leaned against the garage door. She frowned unhappily but knew she had to make a point. "As long as that data exists anyone can control Hiro. Can you envision him waking up from his coma and having no control over his body or his actions? Right now, he's a fundamentally a prisoner.

We need to think what's best for Hiro and not what he would want for his invention. Completely eradicating the data is the only way to keep Hiro safe. I'm sure the kid designed his tech in a way no one could replicate."

Tadashi clenched his fists then let out a deep breath. Go-Go was right about this. No matter how amazing this technology was, it would destroy Tadashi's heart if he rescued his little brother only to find him a puppet again. "So we can't do anything about the transmitters. What about the microbots? Any weakness we can use?"

"Tadashi if I may, I have formulated a solution to this problem. The strength of the microbots is also their weakness." Baymax's stomach lit up as he showed a comparison between bacteria and the microbots.

"One bacteria is not a threat, just as one microbot is not dangerous. They become dangerous when more of then join together. To reduce bacterial infections antibiotics are used to thin their numbers so the body can fight them off. We could do the same thing with the microbots."

Tadashi's eyes lit up with joy. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it first. "The problem isn't the transmitters, it's the microbots themselves. Callaghan mass produced them in order to carry out his plan."

"If we destroy most of or all the microbots, Hiro won't be able to create what Callaghan wants. Even if he leaves an order in Hiro's head!"

"Freddie's right. No microbots means we have a clear shot at getting the second neural transmitter. Once it's destroyed no one can control Dashi's brother."

Wasabi got a panic look on his face. "What if that happens while Hiro's in the sky or next to something dangerous? The second we break the transmitter, he'll immediately flop over because of his coma."

"One of us will keep Hiro safe. Once Callaghan's in custody, Hiro can be rushed to the hospital for the doctors to care for him. The doctors will recognize him and call Tadashi and his aunt telling them Hiro's alive. You and your aunt will rush to the hospital. While that's going on the rest of us could clear out the professor's lairs to prevent another disaster like this. "

"It's a good plan. Callaghan's revenge ends today. Big Hero 6 will make sure of it." The others grinned at their new team name.

* * *

At the new Krei Tech Headquarters, Krei was giving a speech about how he formed his company and the steps he took to ensure the technology his company was useful and safe. Any setbacks the company had they quickly overcame.

In the shadows, Callaghan growled upon hearing this. How dare he proclaim his technology was safe! Was his daughter just a setback? This man was the cause of all his pain. He wouldn't have needed to steal and enslave Hiro if Krei had been held accountable for his actions.

He tightened his hands and looked to his side. Hiro stood next to him. His visor was up and he gaped at the building emptily. If someone listened closely they could hear the servos throughout his body stocking working to keep him erect.

"Listen closely, Hiro on what I need you to do." It wasn't necessary for him to speak to the comatose boy to issue his commands. It was just a habit from his old teaching job.

The servos tilted the boy's head so he appeared to be looking up at his master. The neural transmitter on his head sparked slightly as his brain registered someone was talking to him.

"I need you to create a barrier around Krei and his building, cutting off any access for help. Make sure the microbots transport me swiftly wherever I go.

Once I have Krei in my hands, bring the portal out and turn it on. Make sure you don't get sucked into the portal yourself. If your brother and his friends show up, put an end to them.

Lastly, if I give you any orders, verbally or telepathically, you carry them out without any resistance and don't stop until the objective is completed."

Hiro nodded and turned his head back towards the building. He raised his hands up and spread them apart. The microbots responded in time with his movements. They got taller and taller as they surrounded the building.

In the courtyard, everyone assembled started to panic upon seeing a sea of black robots swarmed the building. Many were frozen in fear, including Krei himself.

The sea of microbots flooded the courtyard. They scooped everyone except Krei, and carried them away before dropping them brusquely into a parking garage. The microbots retreated and formed a sphere around the building, ensuring no one could enter or exit, whether it be by sky or underground.

Krei let out a surprised yelp as the piece of sidewalk he was on rose into the air. The microbots created manacles around his arms and legs before anchoring themselves into the sidewalk. The man couldn't move at all.

Out of the opening at the top of the dome, a spiraling staircase formed. He witnessed a man with a kabuki mask covering his face descend down the staircase. When he stepped off the last step, the microbots formed moving platforms. He came to a stop in front of Krei.

"Whoever you are, I can pay you a lot of money if you let me go," Krei pleaded. The man in the mask body language changed for angry to intense rage. It happened so fast Krei didn't realize he was punched in the jaw until he felt the broken teeth against the inside of his cheek.

"Money? You think _money_ can fix anything, don't you? That as long as you wave it around nobody will touch you. If you bribe someone, then they won't mention rushed production or safety procedures. They wouldn't even voice their concerns about the nature of the project because if they can't be bribed, then you fire and blacklist them."

The businessman squirmed uncomfortably. He was starting to get really scared. "I may have cut corners a few times, but I've never actually hurt anyone!"

"NEVER HURT ANYONE!" The masked man removed his mask revealing himself to Krei. "Your Silent Sparrow experiment killed my daughter! How dare you call her death a setback!"

"Her death was an aci…" Krei stopped talking and started trying to get air in him as Callaghan placed his hands around his neck, trying to choke him to death.

"There was nothing _accidental _about Abigale's death! You knew it wasn't safe, but your greed was more important than her life!" Callaghan stopped choking him and grabbed the man's shirt, lifting him a few inches off the platform.

At the opening, Hiro's microbot' wings carried him down and anchored himself to his own platform. Using hand gestures, he moved the portal pieces into position. The microbots secured the pieces in place and drew together interlocking the pieces.

Ignoring the cries of Krei, Hiro used his invention to turn on the power. The portal sputtered and sparked for a few seconds. Then the portal opened the artificial wormhole and started sucking the building piece by piece inside.

Callaghan leaned close to his victim and whispered into his ear. "I'm going to take everything from you before I send you on a one way trip into there. I hope your death is painful!"

* * *

The portal had sucked in the top floor of the building, when there was a fracas in the barrier, near where the courtyard was. The enslaved Hiro followed Callaghan's commands reinforcing the barrier to ensure no help got through.

Then there was another fracas and the barrier wavered even more. Hiro tried to reinforce it. His efforts didn't work as a hole formed in the barrier after a section of the microbots crumbled after being made brittle.

Big Hero 6 rushed inside, not sure how long the gap in the barrier would last. As soon as they entered the courtyard they had to keep themselves from being sucked up into the portal.

Baymax identified each person and where they were at the moment. He also, of course, gave them a health update. "Callaghan's emotional center has been overwhelmed by his breakdown. He is likely to make mistakes.

Krei's body is reacting to fear. He is attempting to find a way out of the barrier. For some reason, he has suffered from bladder leakage.

Hiro is the same as before. His nanites are trying to prevent him from opening old wounds."

Tadashi heard him and started issuing orders. "You guys start getting rid of the microbots! Baymax get Hiro and keep him safe! I'm going after Callaghan!" The orange clad boy started running towards his target as the rest did the same.

Wasabi felt the changes in gravity effect his weight making him lighter. Picturing himself as a snowflake falling to the ground, he was able to adjust to the gravity.

He pushed himself up and started slicing the microbots apart as he came down. The tiny robots broke apart and immediately got sucked up into the portal. He bounced to another section and did that again.

"I'm the green fury and taste my blades!" He yelled in excitement. His ears picked up the sound of something in the air. Quickly, he slashed the barrier causing the microbots to float up in front of him like a shield.

Pieces of broken glass pierced the microbots before being sucked up into the portal. The portal's power was increasing slightly as it tore apart the top two floors completely apart. The retaining wall also started to crumble.

Hiro's slightly active brain registered that four of the members of Big Hero 6 were actively trying to destroy his barrier. The one in pink had used a chemball to create several holes in the ground while whooping in delight about chemistry. The microbots that had been underground were now flying through the air.

The blue monster had managed to find some footing on the partially sucked up retaining wall. He was blowing fire towards the upper part of the sphere. Patches devoid of microbots were growing in size.

While the green one kept slashing the right side of the building. The yellow one was speeding around the left side going up and down then sideways damaging the microbots.

His eyes were forced to look at his master. He was fighting directly with the one in orange. Krei was still on his platform witnessing the fight. Knowing the orange one was the leader Hiro commanded some of the microbots to pull away from the barrier.

The ones he gathered together turned in the shape of a pointy crystal. He aimed it at the orange one. Before he could use it a rocket fist destroyed the artificial crystal.

The big red one flew into view making part of Hiro's brain remember there was a red member on the team. He released his anchor points and flew after the robot.

The robot blinked then started flying higher in the air closer to the portal opening. The platform Hiro had been on split into smaller pillars rising up to attack Baymax. Whenever they came close he would use karate moves breaking them apart.

Baymax twisted out of the way as Hiro tried to ram him in midair. He performed a few loops carefully maintaining his distance from the portal opening. He could get away from it on his own power, unlike Hiro whose wings were already starting to fall apart as they were sucked inside.

Wanting to get further away from the opening to the portal, Baymax dived down, avoiding chunks of the building and occasionally batting some of the microbots into the air.

Hiro followed Baymax before flying around some of the debris and then rocketing up and striking Baymax in the chest. The robot wobbled in the air for a second leaving an opening for the kid.

Hiro kept up the attack punching and clawing at Baymax's armor in a frenzy. He needed to destroy the robot completely if he was to complete his master's orders.

* * *

As Hiro continued to attack Baymax, Tadashi and Callaghan were locked in combat with each other. Once more, the microbots formed an armor around Callaghan. Tadashi had pulled together a snake robot and was using it as a whip.

Tadashi whirled his snake whip to block Callaghan's strike. The man was clearly deranged as he tried to hit Tadashi with his enhanced punches. Jumping up Tadashi kicked out both his legs landing a blow to just below the knee caps on both legs. He then scrambled backward to avoid taking a foot to his head.

"I always admired your persistence, Mr. Hamada. You never gave up even when the situation clearly is not in your favor!" Callaghan shouted as smashed his right foot on Tadashi's. Even with the armor it still hurt.

"You were our teacher and betrayed our trust!" he snapped back. Without looking he pulled out a robot piece from his shirt's side pocket. He squeezed it firmly causing a laser beam to shoot out of it.

The light from the beam blinded Callaghan for a few moments. Dropping off the shaky platform, Tadashi held on tight to slowly thinning base. He knew Callaghan would soon discover him so he had to work fast.

Slipping his fingers into his arm pocket, he pulled out a tiny little robot. It was shaped like an ant. He carefully placed the metal insect into the base. Then he lifted his head to see if Callaghan was still on the platform.

Callaghan grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up onto the platform. Gripping him tightly, the man used his enhanced microbot armor to pile drive Tadashi over and over into the platform. He kicked the young man on the back attempting to break his former student's spine.

"I have had it with you, Tadashi Hamada! I would have had my revenge by now if you didn't keep interfering!" He rolled the man over and pulled the helmet off. He threw it off the platform and it was sucked straight into the portal.

The artificial wormhole had increased its gravimetric pull. Almost everything was inside the portal. Krei had been freed from his platform when a piece of the building had crashed into it. Right now, the man's jacket had snagged on an exposed beam. If it ripped he go straight in.

I need to get up now. If I don't the entire plan is doomed. Despite the agony of the assault, Tadashi pushed himself up with his hands and managed to stand halfway up. He looked Callaghan straight in the eyes. "Your revenge ends here Professor." He clicked the activation button on his left hand.

There was a loud beeping sound than a burst of orange energy sweeping across the air. Instantly, every single remaining microbot fizzled out. The portal started to suck them at incredible speed.

Tadashi had used a disrupter robot he had created. While it could only disrupt a few microbots, due to their shared mental link, all of them had been disrupted by the tiny robot.

Fred bounced up and caught Tadashi. Baymax landed on the ground and had strong bear hug grip around Hiro. Two chemballs trapped Callaghan in an extra strength cocoon mesh.

The portal fell to the ground now that it wasn't being supported. It rolled around before coming to a rest on some rubble. The artificial wormhole started to dissolve as the opening started to breakdown.

* * *

"We need to get out of here until the wormhole finishes breaking down! It's too risky to stay here!" Honey Lemon called out to her friends. The others nodded in agreement.

Fred and Wasabi grabbed a hold of Callaghan's cocoon and started dragging him across the ground as fast as they could. The girls followed them looking back over their shoulders to make sure the rest of the team was following them.

Tadashi ran past Baymax, who was scurrying as fast as he could to get out of the danger zone. Hiro had stopped struggling and was hanging limply between the robot's arms.

The robot turned his head around to make sure Krei was still relatively safe for the time being when his sensors were drawn towards the portal. He stopped and stared at it, trying to make sense of the confusing data.

"Baymax! Get over here now!" Tadashi shouted. He had joined the others behind a large chunk of the building to wait out wormhole. "Both you and Hiro need to get behind here now!"

"I cannot. I have detected an adult female who appears to be in hypersleep. My scanner has also picked up on her slow degeneration from the effects of the wormhole."

Callaghan knew instantly that it had to be his daughter. Abigale was alive! "Hiro! Get my daughter back here before the wormhole closes!"

The servos in Hiro's body started back up. The kid threw his head back into Baymax's chest. Surprised, the robot lost on the grip and the boy ran full speed into the portal!

"HIRO!" Tadashi yelled in a panic. Before he could jump into the portal after his little brother Baymax stopped him. "Let me go Baymax! I lost Hiro once, I can't lose him again!"

Baymax looked at his creator with stern eyes. "You will not survive passage into the wormhole and have no way to return to the entrance before it closes completely. I have the means to do both. I will get Hiro and bring him back safely."

The robot activated his wings and shot up to gain altitude. Then he deactivated his thrusters. Gravity pulled him down towards the portal opening as he gained speed. He passed through the portal going 250 miles, the same as a peregrine falcon.

As he flew away from the event horizon, Baymax diverted most of his power to his scanner. He could now see farther than before and started doing a sweep of the wormhole while twisting and doing loops to avoid the floating building parts.

There! He saw Hiro on top of the pod. Through the pod's hatch, he saw a woman lying in the cockpit clearly in hypersleep. It was remarkable that her muscles hadn't atrophy during the five years she had been in here.

It appeared that Hiro was attempting to break the glass to get her out of the pod. Sudden exposure to the wormhole environment after being in controlled one for years could send her into shock.

Firing a three second blast, Baymax pushed himself through the environment towards the pod. Directly in his path was part of a level of the building, with only a narrow path through a broken window.

Sucking his gut even tighter, Baymax flew through the hole. He was surrounded by floating glass. He was thankful for his armor. One tear and he be stranded here.

Swiping the glass aside, he continued through the narrow path and used his rocket fist to create an opening. The window in front of him broke apart as he flew through it.

He finally reached the pod and tapped the boy on the shoulder. Hiro stopped pounding the glass. He floated a bit in the air looking at the robot. He didn't have any microbots to attack and his energy had been spent jumping his way here and trying to break the glass.

Baymax caught his rocket fist as it returned to him, but didn't put in back on. Instead, he pressed his hand on the neural transmitter. He had a hunch, which was remarkable considering he was a robot, about how to communicate with the boy.

He ran his program through the transmitter and it was turned into bio electricity entering his brain. Images flashed in Hiro's mind. A way to complete the mission and get them all back safely.

The rest of Big Hero 6 stared at the portal. The opening had started to shrink. Soon it would completely close. The team was praying that the opening would remain for a few more minutes.

"Please Baymax, bring my brother home," Tadashi whispered to himself.

The opening was about to close completely when something was wedged between the event horizon forcing it to open wide. It was the microbots joined together to form a large version of themselves!

Baymax's armor was pushed out first. The pieces came apart revealing Abigale lying on the ground. Then came Baymax who wiggled his way through the opening. He fell to the ground and rolled away. Opening his arms they saw Hiro safely tucked with him.

The boy raised his hand and pushed the microbots back into the wormhole which finally collapsed. With the portal closed, the area returned to normal. Krei's jacket finally gave out and he landed in the one remaining bush.

* * *

The group heard the sirens approaching and knew their time was limited. Go-Go pressed her foot hard against Callaghan's chest. Glaring at her old professor she spoke in a dangerously low tone. "Where are the flash drives with the data you stole from Hiro? Tell us now!"

"I don't have to tell you anything," he spat at her. He was looking past Go-Go towards his daughter. She was still unconscious yet alive.

After the last five years, he thought his daughter was gone, here she was now. All he wanted to do was get out of this cocoon and hold her.

Seeing this, Wasabi and Fred stood in front of Abigale blocking her from Callaghan's sight. "If you ever hope to see your daughter again you'll tell us where the flash drives are," Wasabi demanded.

"Not to mention your other lair!"

"You have no authority when it comes to if I see my daughter or not!"

"But the courts do," Honey Lemon chimed in. "All we have to is contact the DA and provide them with your motive and videos of you trying to kill us and they'll send you to maximum lock up with no visitors."

Callaghan's face blanched. He knew his former students were telling the truth. He couldn't lose Abigale all over again, not after seeing her alive again! "The flash drives are in my pocket. My other lair is at the old Chinese hospital in Chinatown. The back door is open. You'll find the rest of the information related to Hiro there, including notes on how I surgically implanted the servos and robot prosthetics onto his body."

Honey Lemon melted part of the cocoon so she could reach into Callaghan's pocket and remove the drives, before resealing him. Go-Go then lead the team, save for Baymax and Tadashi, towards the lair.

Tadashi hugged his brother tightly. "I wish I could take you with me now, but I can't. You need to be found by the legal authorities. I love you Hiro and I'll see you soon."

Tadashi laid his brother down next to Abigale and took off his brother's helmet. He placed it near Hiro so it appeared it came off due to the intense gravitational pull.

"We need to go now," Baymax gently prompted his creator. Tadashi nodded and climbed on Baymax. They took off and were out of sight as the authorities arrived.

The fire department went to work putting out small fires. Some officers were talking with Krei about what happened as others arrested Callaghan and took him into custody. The paramedics were attending to both Abigale and Hiro.

"Miss, can you tell me your name? Can you speak?" One of the paramedics asked as they loaded Abigale onto a stretcher. "Can you hear me miss? What is your name?"

Abigale's eyes fluttered open. She was confused by what was going on and didn't know where she was. Her mouth was incredibly dry. "My name is Abigale. Abigale Callaghan," she said in a raspy voice.

"Okay, don't worry Abigale. We're going to take you to the hospital right now. Just stay calm for us alright?"

"Alright." As she was loaded into the ambulance, out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father sitting in a police car. She was puzzled about it and would ask about it later. Right now she was in a lot of pain.

Hiro was being rolled to his own ambulance, still in his coma. The paramedics were trying to get him to respond or at least tell them his name. His comatose state was very concerning.

The paramedics passed by the fire marshal in order to reach the ambulance. He spotted the boy and told the medics to stop for a second. He walked over and got a proper look at the boy.

His eyes widened in disbelief. "I don't believe this. It's the boy we thought perished in the SFIT fire, Hiro Hamada! How in the world did he get here and what happened to him?"

"Sir, we need to get him to the hospital right now. If you could contact his family, please tell them we're bringing him to San Fransokyo Memorial Hospital. He needs medical attention right away."

Back at the Lucky Cat Café, Tadashi and Baymax had finished storing their gear and greeted Aunt Cass, as she entered the café. They took her groceries and started walking up the stairs.

"Thanks for your help boys. I didn't realize how many bags I had gotten. I didn't see you this morning. Another early day at the campus?" she asked, picking up Mochi and hugging him.

"You could say that," Tadashi commented. His heart was beating fast as he anxiously waited for the call about his brother.

The home phone rang and Aunt Cass picked it up. "Hello, this is Cass. Oh hello Mr. Punch, have you figured out how the fire started?"

Baymax and Tadashi watch as the color drained out of Aunt Cass's face. Her eyes were wide and she had tightened her grip on the phone. "Are you sure? Absolutely _sure?_ San Fransokyo Memorial? Tell them we're on our way and thank you."

She dropped the phone and stared at Tadashi. "Tadashi, you're not going to believe this. They found Hiro and he's alive!"

Tadashi didn't have to disguise his happiness. "Hiro's alive? Hiro's alive yes!"


	8. Hiro's Recovery

**Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this story. There will be eventually a sequel, but I don't know when. Until then, enjoy the last chapter of my story.**

* * *

Aunt Cass had never driven so fast before. She needed to see for herself that her youngest nephew was indeed alive. The fire marshal hadn't told her anything other than Hiro was found alive among the destruction of Krei Headquarters. Her heart pounded as she wondered what condition he would be in.

The tiny family arrived minutes after the ambulance reached the emergency room. It was pandemonium as the doctors rushed around trying to help Abigale and Hiro. Determinedly, Aunt Cass pushed her way through the throng calling out for Hiro.

A security guard saw her and quickly stopped her. "Miss, you can't be back here right now. You need to go to the waiting room."

"But that's my nephew over there! We thought he was dead for a month! I have to see him. Please, just to confirm it's actually him," she pleaded. Her eyes were full of tears and her lips were quivering.

The security guard hesitate for a minute, then took her over to the bay Hiro was in. She caught a glimpse of Hiro. A rush of relief flooded her body before she felt the agony of seeing him like this.

She was escorted out of the ER and to the waiting room and sat down next to Tadashi and Baymax. The security guard told them someone would be out soon to explain what was going on with her nephew.

Cass clasped her hands together and started tapping the floor with her foot. "It really is Hiro. It's him and I'm happy, but Tadashi, you should have seen him. I only got a glimpse for a few seconds, but it was awful!"

Tadashi asked her anxiously what was so awful. "Was he burned badly? Is he going to be okay?"

"I don't know! All I saw was him in a strange outfit, but his poor face. It had burns scars on it! Then that transmitter thingy he built, it looked like it was glued to his head!" Cass shook her head and let some tears fall. "I can only imagine how the rest of his body looks. I wish we knew what happened to him!"

It broke Tadashi's heart to see his aunt like this. He wanted to tell her everything, from Callaghan setting the fire to the fight at Krei Headquarters. He couldn't though, not right now when she was trying to process the fact Hiro was alive and in the hospital.

He too was anxious to know what was going on in the ER. Baymax had said that Hiro was stable. Whether he still was he didn't know. He could only sit there and wait for his friends to show up. Hopefully, the found the notes Callaghan had kept when he was trying to make Hiro a cyborg.

In the ER, doctors were trying to figure out what to do. It was difficult to assess Hiro's vitals with the armor around him. They couldn't get a blood pressure or determine his heart rate due to the thickness of the armor.

They noted his facial injuries and saw the oxygen tube. Checking his eyes and pain stimulation, they were able to determine he was likely in a coma. The ER physicians had no doubt he needed surgery of some kind. Without an accurate assessment, there was no telling how Hiro would react in an operation.

"We can't do much for him with this suit on him! It's blocking our access to his body. It's imperative we figure some way to get this suit off him," the main doctor stated.

"How do we do that? None of us can even figure out how he got into this suit in the first place," a nurse replied anxiously.

The doors to the ER burst open and everyone looked up. They were surprised to see four people in a variety of colorful costumes panting. The one in yellow skated over and held out some papers.

"These are the notes on what was done to Hiro Hamada. Hopefully, they can help you."

"Is this a joke? We don't have time…"

"Just take them! The guy who destroyed the new Krei HQ wrote them. We recovered him from his lair. If you don't trust us, trust that we want to see this kid alive and well!" the one in green yelled at them.

The doctor took the notes from the strange group. Satisfied they had done their good deed, the four of them left the way they came in. The main doctor looked at the paper befuddlement before issuing orders to his colleagues. "Alright people, let's prep this kid so he can go to the OR. Here are instructions on how to get that suit off and take his vitals. Let's move people."

* * *

In the waiting room, Tadashi got a text alert on his phone from his friends. They had finished their mission and would be back once they stored their gear at Fred's house.

He sent a reply text to them and answered the unspoken question. "My friends were wondering what was going on when they couldn't reach me. I just told them what happened and they said they'll be right over."

"That's sweet of them. You could really use their support right now. Hiro could use the support right now." She glanced at the clock and saw it had been twenty five minutes since she had glimpsed at Hiro.

"What is taking the doctors so long to tell us an update? What is going on in there? I'm so concerned."

Baymax got up and walked over to Cass before cuddling her. He stroked her hair and told her it would be okay. "The ER doctors need to be thorough with their assessment. They'll come to speak to us soon. Try to not let your worry interfere with your perception of time."

A short time later, the others returned to the waiting room. They all expressed words of disbelief and surprise to cover their butts. Only when they sat down and started to hug Cass in reassurances did they relax.

Wasabi looked at Tadashi, who seemed to be lost in thought. "How are you holding up? Being so close yet far away from Hiro," he asked quietly.

Tadashi closed his eyes and took a deep breath before whispering back, "I'm barely keeping it together. You saw what he was like when we faced off with Callaghan. I can only imagine the horrors my little bro faced."

Fred patted him on the back. "I'm not going to say it will be okay, because we don't know that. What I will say is no matter what happens, he still will look up to you as his big brother."

Tadashi smiled and then looked up as one of the ER doctors approached the little group. The girls helped Cass stand as she looked at the doctor anxiously. "What is it? Please, tell me what's happening with my nephew."

"Miss, please sit down. What I have to say will be hard to hear." Seeing her losing her coloring, he quickly told her that Hiro was alive still. She sank back into her seat slightly relieved. Everyone gripped the edges of their chairs tightly as they listened to what the doctor had to say.

"My team and I had some trouble assessing your nephew. No one has seen a case like this before and I'm still in the dark about many details involving what happened to him.

When Hiro was found, he was in a strange armored suit. It was difficult to get any vitals because of the armor. Once we obtained notes on how to take the armor off we were able to get them. Your nephew is currently in a coma."

Aunt Cass gasped in horror. Her heart was beating fast and she felt faint. As the doctor continued to describe what the initial assessment revealed, she had to duck her head between her legs to keep from passing out.

Tadashi took over then. "Doctor, where is Hiro now? When can we see him?"

"Your brother is currently in surgery. Whoever kidnapped him didn't fully treat the burns on him. He sustained injuries from having robotic parts insert inside him and around his limbs. We still don't have a clear picture of what is going on inside him, especially his brain. You'll need to go to the OR waiting room. A doctor will come to speak to you about what is happening and any other updates during the surgery."

"Thank you. Baymax, do you think you can carry Aunt Cass upstairs please?"

"Of course. Let me help you up Aunt Cass." Baymax scooped up the woman and held her close to his chest. He warmed himself up just a little to help her relax. Then the group rode the elevator to the surgical floor to wait for more information on Hiro's condition.

* * *

In surgery, the team was carefully following the instructions they were given. It was strange having to use what was fundamentally a manual book to help this kid. If they could do this normally it wouldn't be taking so much time, but the freak who came up with this cyborg-like procedure had created a number of complications.

The first thing the surgeons had to do was finish removing the soft exosuit in order to gain full access to Hiro's body. Once the suit was off they finally had a good look at the boy's body.

His right side still had some burn scars and parts of the skin were still white indicating they hadn't started to heal. On the left side of his body, there were a few deep bruises. It also appeared that his femur and three rib bones had not been set properly or had been moved around when the suit was put on him.

The robotic prosthetics on the hands, feet and lining his body would have to go. Tests had shown his lungs were healing rather well from smoke inhalation. What the blood tests had revealed was the most shocking. Fully functional medical nanites had already healed a lot of damage and even working on muscle recovery.

"Alright remember, we have to be slow and delicate. According to these notes, if we work to quickly, the nanites will react believing the body is being attacked and close up the incisions."

He told the anesthesiologist to make sure the anesthesia didn't wear off and to be monitored closely because of Hiro being in a coma. The nurses were standing by, one with a scanner to register every item used in the surgery to prevent anything from being left behind.

The first thing they did was slowly start to remove the robotic prosthetics covering his feet. They needed to have access to his leg so they could fix the femur bone in his left leg. They also needed to establish if his feet still had circulation.

Once the established there was still circulation in the feet they did the same with his hands. Testing each finer and toe for any damage. He responded to stimulation so the nerves were conducting properly.

It took nearly two hours to get the robot parts off and check for any damage done to the extremities. Then they started to remove the servos from inside the body. Only by removing them would it be safe to set the bones before moving to work on his skin and check out his new headgear.

In the surgical waiting room, Aunt Cass was biting her nails as Tadashi paced, occasionally looking out the window. Wasabi was reading a health magazine while the girls went to get some dinner for the group. Fred had just got off the phone with his parents.

"Don't worry about the bill Ms. Aunt Cass. My parents will cover everything from the hospital stay to anything Hiro needs afterward. You don't have to pay us back, Hiro's my friend and I want to help out any way I can."

"Thank you, Fred. That is kind of you." The girls arrived back with some cafeteria food and the group started to eat the mildly bad tasting hospital food.

Tadashi watched the clock trying to not think of how many hours were ticking by without any word. Every half hour or so he would ask Baymax if he could tell what was going on in the operating room only for Baymax to tell him he wouldn't break his ethical protocols for him by spying on the operation.

* * *

Around midnight everyone fell asleep in their chairs unable to keep their eyes opened any longer. Baymax found two unused cots for them to use. Honey Lemon and Aunt Cass shared one. Go-Go and Wasabi on the other. Fred was sleeping just fine in his chair.

Tadashi fell asleep on top of Baymax, completely worn out by the day's events. None of them would wake up for several hours until about eight the next morning, nearly twenty hours after the surgery started.

The head surgeon cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the groggy party. "Are any of you here for Hiro Hamada?" he asked.

"We all are. My name is Cass. I'm Hiro's aunt and guardian. Please, what can you tell us about my nephew? Did he make it through his surgery?"

"Your nephew was just wheeled into ICU to recover. It was a very long and complicated surgery. What was done to your nephew was unprecedented and we ran into some unforeseen complications. Sit down please."

They sat down except for Baymax. Tadashi asked him to display the scan of Hiro he took back at the lab so Aunt Cass wouldn't know about their little superhero adventure. With it up the doctor would be able to show Aunt Cass where Hiro's injuries occurred and what they had fixed. The surgeon was grateful for the graphics to help explain the situation properly.

"Your nephew has been experimented on Miss Cass. When he was wheeled into my OR it took some time to get him out of an exosuit so we could exam his body for injuries. It was a difficult task not only to get the exosuit off him but to remove the robotic parts covering his natural limbs."

Pointing to the display on Baymax's stomach, the doctor showed where the robotic parts had been anchored to and the time it took to safely remove them and testing to see if the digits still had a blood flow or if there was any necrotic tissue.

"Once we were able to remove those, it became a challenge to locate and carefully remove the servos in his body that were responsible for his movements in his coma. We ran into some trouble, because to my shock, your nephew even though he was in a coma, managed to create fully functional medical nanites, to assist in his healing."

Aunt Cass raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What are medical nanites and how did he make them if he was in a coma?"

Tadashi jumped in with an explanation. "Medical nanites are medical tools that are supposed to help repair, protect, and attack if the body is under threat. While the nanites themselves are in the infant stage, Hiro knew the basics of these machines because I told him about speculate if Hiro could control the microbots while in a coma, some part of his mind could create new technology to keep himself alive."

The surgeon agreed and continued to explain in more details about the surgery. He elucidated about taking out each servo one by one before sewing up the incisions. He mentioned they did an exploratory on his main organs to make sure they hadn't been damaged by the accident.

"Afterwards we closed him up and reset his bones properly. With his skin healing our team just cleaned up some of the remaining damage to the skin and around his forehead."

"Were you able to remove the transmitter from his head? I only got a glimpse of it, but the skin around it was raw and red. It must have been on there tight."

The doctor sighed and gathered up his inner strength. How do you explain something that was supposed to be science fiction was now a reality? "Miss Cass, I don't know how to explain the answer to your question. Even I am at a loss of how this happened.

The transmitter your nephew built, somehow the combination of the fire and the explosion, caused the device to get through the skin and bone connecting directly with the brain. While the scalp and skull are not very thick it still would take a lot of force to this."

Aunt Cass covered her mouth with her hand and started gasping. Tadashi comforted her. Honey Lemon decided to ask further questions because they still didn't know how the brain was connected with the device.

"Excuse me, sir, are you saying that the neural transmitter is literally touching the brain? If that's true, why hasn't the body's defenses attacked it?"

"The device is in direct contact with the frontal lobe in the cerebrum of the brain. The transmitter's electrical impulses have become part of a new set of neural pathways. To remove the transmitter would stop this activity and lead to brain damage."

"Which means that a large portion of what makes Hiro himself would be lost for good correct?" Go-Go asked and the doctor nodded wearily.

"We'll have to keep an eye on him and do further testing to see how much the device has affected the rest of the brain. I've scheduled him for an MRI, EEG, and more blood tests later today, but right now he needs to recuperate."

Tadashi asked the one question he'd been dreading. "Sir, do you think my brother has a chance of waking from the coma and not ending up in a vegetative state?"

"According to the test results we have at the moment, it appears your brother is starting to become aware gradually. Given his age and his health right now, he should be waking up somewhere between a week to three months. You'll have to be patient."

After a few more questions, the doctor allowed for Tadashi and Cass, and Baymax, after a little persuasion to visit Hiro for a few minutes.

* * *

Hiro looked so small in the bed as if he was a doll. Without the suit and the robotic parts, he looked normal and helpless at the same time. There were tubes and IV lines connected to him and theh still were giving him a bit of oxygen to help his lungs fully heal.

His right side where they had cleaned up the skin had been covered up with bandages along with his ribs. His left leg had a splint to keep it properly aligned. Most of his hair was gone and they had put a surgical cap over it. He laid in the bed comfortably as the machines helped do the work of his body for him.

Aunt Cass started to cry as she placed her hand over Hiro's. "I'm so happy your alive Hiro. I was devastated when I thought you died. I don't know what happened to you between the fire and now, but I promise once your home we'll have the biggest welcome home feast ever."

Tadashi gently hugged his little brother. "We're all together now little bro. Do not worry yourself, we're going to stay right here next to you until you wake up."

"I pledge to help you in any way I can as your personal healthcare companion. After all, family helps family."

As the small family waited for the youngest to wake up, the police had released a statement to the media explaining part of what happened a Krei Tech. It was headline news. A beloved science professor faked his death and stole technology in order to kill the man he blamed for his daughter's supposed death.

Though Hiro wasn't mentioned by name, the news feed did acknowledge there had been two other victims recovered from the devastation site. All the news reporters could tell is that the two victims had been taken to a hospital for medical treatment.

When the rest of the gang was allowed to visit later that day, the brought the local paper for Aunt Cass to read. She was perturbed upon reading the article. "That kind sweet old man, your mentor, is responsible for all this? I can't believe he would set a fire and kidnap Hiro, just to use him for his revenge plot. It's unreal!" she exclaimed angrily.

"The police are still investigating Callaghan to learn the extent of his crimes. They'll most likely want to take statements from you and Dashi, possibly even Hiro when he wakes up."

"What good could that do? According to the doctors he's been in a coma for a while now. How can he recount events he isn't aware of?"

Tadashi looked at Go-Go and shrugged. "I don't know Go-Go, I just hope when he wakes up, he'll remember who we are."

A nurse came in and explained that it was time to take Hiro for his neurological testing. The group was asked to leave and come back later once they had all freshened up.

Hiro was transferred from his bed to the stretcher, heading to the MRI lab. Once there, he was injected with contrast dye so the MRI results would be clearer. Next, they had to remove any metal to make sure it wouldn't interfere with the scan.

They had done testing earlier to determine if either the nanites or the transmitter were MRI safe. Thankfully they had been made out of titanium, a nonmagnetic metal used in several medical implants, joint replacement, and dental implants.

When he was ready he was placed inside the machine while being strapped down with soft restraints. If he woke up during the procedure, they didn't want him to panic.

The MRI machine started to hum and bang as the test began. The neurologists wanted clear and precise images to understand how the brain was coping with the transmitter inside it and was it causing a blood flow problem.

The test lasted a good hour. The radiologist conducting the test wanted to be methodical as possible. Even rescanning parts of the brain to be sure he didn't miss anything. Once the testing was done, Hiro was removed from the scanner and taken to another room to do more testing.

The next test was an EEG. The doctors placed a few electrodes on Hiro's scalp, including a few of them over the transmitter's own electrodes to help better understand the electrical activity between the brain and the transmitter.

The EEG test lasted about half an hour before it was done. The results of the test would be compared with the MRI ones to see what the best course of action would be needed to help Hiro function normally.

Aunt Cass, Tadashi, and Baymax returned to the ICU later that day to find Hiro resting comfortably. They had taken him off the oxygen earlier than expected due to the nanites help to speed along the recovery of the lungs. It would still take a few more months before they were completely healed up.

Tadashi was pleased to see that. "If they took him off oxygen then that's a good sign they're healing properly Aunt Cass. It means he's one step closer to coming home."

"Thank goodness," Aunt Cass whispered to herself. She gently touched Hiro's cheek, careful not to aggravate the burn scar. "Do you think he'll sound different or need inhalers?"

Tadashi shrugged. It was certainly a big possibility that Hiro's voice would be hoarse for the rest of his life. He might need inhalers if his lungs didn't completely recover. There was also the possibility these would only be temporary measures.

"We'll just have to wait and see," he told his aunt. Tadashi was worried about something else. Hiro's nanites were beyond any medical technology currently available. He was fearful his brother would be used for more experiments.

Baymax picked up on Tadashi's uneasiness and did a quick scan of Hiro. All of his nanites were still inside of him. They were currently still working on his lungs and some of them had broken off to fix his voice box.

"All nanites are accounted for. None of them have taken for study."

"That's good news buddy. Thanks for telling us that."

Aunt Cass looked at her eldest nephew. "Tadashi, certainly you can't think the hospital staff would…"

"I never imagined my robotics professor would experiment on Hiro either. Those medical nanites are worth a fortune, especially if they can be reproduced. We have to protect Hiro from others who would wish him harm."

The door to the room opened and in walked the neurologist. "I can assure you, Mr. Hamada, every precaution is being taken to prevent your fears from happening. Right now, it is more important to help your brother's recovery than to think about the nanites."

Tadashi still was suspicious of the doctors at the hospital having other interests. Callaghan's actions had affected his ability to trust professionals. For now, he would keep an eye on his brother.

"I've been reviewing Hiro's test results. According to the MRI scans Hiro's brain has suffered no damage. The blood flow hasn't been affected in any way. The structure of the brain is still the same, save for the transmitter touching it.

The EEG also confirmed the electrical activity of the brain is normal. The transmitter hasn't caused any interruption in neural activity. The results show it has increased the activity slightly."

Aunt Cass was delighted to hear that. She had been worried about taking care of Hiro if he had suffered some brain damage. To know he was alright was the best news. Still, she was concerned about something else. "I read some articles where coma patients lost some memories and couldn't recognize certain individuals after they woke up. Is that a possibility here?"

"There is always a small chance of some memory loss due to injuries to the brain. Until he wakes up, we can't begin to predict what he'll remember or if he will recognize you or not. For now, you should just talk to him and pray."

While neither one of them was an atheist, Tadashi tended to rely on scientific fact then religion. Right now though, he would take any bit of help he could get.

Please, if anyone is listening to my thoughts, please help Hiro wake up. I need him in my life. Please don't take him away from me.

Aunt Cass was also praying hard. She was asking for the strength to help her continue to be a good guardian no matter what happened with Hiro.

Baymax studied the two humans trying to understand how thoughts could help someone heal. His database had explained the concepts of prayer and religion because many had laws on medical practice. However, that didn't mean he truly understood what it was and how it helped.

"I'm afraid I don't understand the concept of how praying will help someone who is sick get better. If you believe that placebo thoughts will become reality then I will do as you do."

Aunt Cass patted Baymax's hand. "Thank you Baymax. I have faith in you to watch over Hiro while we're at work or school."

Tadashi protested. "Aunt Cass, you can't be serious! There's no way I can go to school while Hiro's in the hospital!"

"You'll be kicked out of school if you miss any more days! You think I really want to go back to the café and work all day? Even with Fred's parents covering the hospital stay, I need to make money so we can keep our home and pay for food!"

She teared up and hung her head. "The world is not fair Tadashi. A month ago we thought Hiro was dead, only to find out now, he's alive and in a coma. It's going to be rather difficult to explain his sudden resurrection to the government, not to mention if he even still qualifies to go to SFIT this late in the semester."

Sighing, muttered under her breath. "It's the best we can do right now. Baymax will keep us informed on what's going on. I know it's not perfect, but it's the best we can do for now."

With heavy hearts, Aunt Cass and Tadashi returned to their normal routine while Baymax stayed at the hospital with Hiro. Each day was harder than the previous day.

* * *

Tadashi was really behind in his school work and his teachers were partially sympathetic about his situation, they still needed him to pick up his grades if he wanted to stay in school. The teachers were going to let him do extra credit work to make up for the days he missed.

Aunt Cass was trying to keep the café running with less sleep than usual. It was difficult for her to function and it was Mochi's crying and constantly rubbing against her was the only way she could function.

Tadashi's friends would also stop by after school to help out Cass so she could go visit Hiro each day. The boy was getting better each day but still hadn't woken up yet.

It had been six weeks since the fire and everyone was in Hiro's room in the ICU. The hospital had bent the rules just once to allow them all in to see Hiro because of Baymax's primary role.

They were all sitting around when Hiro let out a groan. His eyelashes fluttered. His right hand jerked a little. He tilted his head a tiny bit when he heard the others gasp. He let out another groan.

"HIRO! Can you hear me? Hiro are you awake?" Tadashi asked anxiously. His little brother groaned a little more but didn't respond otherwise. Tadashi tried to shake him when Honey Lemon stopped him.

Holding on to his arm, Honey Lemon smiled softly with tears in her eyes. "Tadashi, your brother is starting to come out of his coma, but it's not like on TV or in the movies when a person suddenly just wakes up. It's a gradual thing."

Wasabi nodded in agreement. "Hiro needs a little more time to fully come out of this. Right now his movements aren't on purpose. Soon though he'll be able to make more meaningful movements."

"Yeah, in the comic books if a person starts tracking with their ears and their eyes, it means they're really aware of the world around them."

Go-Go added that once Hiro was able to follow commands repeatedly, he'd be fully conscious and ready to go home.

Knowing this, Aunt Cass and Tadashi remained hopeful Hiro would fully come out of the coma in his own time made them both very hopeful. It didn't matter what challenges laid ahead, they could all get through it together.

Exactly one week later, Hiro was fully awake. His voice was very hoarse and he was still in a bit of pain, but he remembered everyone and only had a few faint memories of what happened to him. It was the best day ever in this little family's life and the beginning of a new chapter for all.


End file.
